March 25, 2004
It's spring! (Well, at least here in the northern hemisphere.) In honor of the season of nature babies, here's an incredible series of photos of a tiny hummingbird nest, and all the drama that ensues therein.
So tiny. Wonder what happened to the second baby.
[ banana ]
Adorable. I love watching hummingbirds at their feeders but have never seen babies. And that nest is a work of art. Very cozy.
[egg nog]
Great find.
Koko like the tiny birdies!!
Did baby bird eat other baby bird? Koko sad.
(i think the bigger baby pushed the little one out of the nest to its death, which often happens. survival of the fittest and all that. i told my sister she'd better behave or i'd try this with her.)
(and thanks for the nog, mick!)
Some bird species seem to lay two eggs, then shove one -- presumably the weaker -- out of the nest. One theory for this behavior is that the parent(s) can only afford to feed one youngster really well. (...nature red in tooth and claw and all that, alas).
Fascinating link, SideDish, thanks.
I love those little things. I keep feeders on my porch during the summer. At the end of last summer, I saw a teeny one following its mother around, begging and pestering her for food.
Apparently he had just learned to fly--it was no bigger than a bumblebee. When she was feeding he'd sit on my porch and just stare at me. Pretty fearless little bugger.
A year ago, one of those tiny things built a nest in the middle of my parent's house terrace. They marveled at its' comings and goings. At some moment, there were two eggs inside, then one, and then she wouldn't go away from it, even if someone got too close to take a picture.
Then, one day, there was an unexpected, off-season storm that almost wiped out the vines the nest was dangling from.
The egg lay there, cracked. The hummingbird was never to be seen again.
[banana]
When I was eight or nine we lived in a house next to a little swampy pond sort of thing (I think it was part of the bayou, technically, but it had gotten separated somehow when they built the main road). A little group of ducks lived there.
In spring they had babies, and we'd go outside and feed them crumbled-up Honey Bunches of Oats. I don't know why we fed them that, but they seemed to enjoy it.
There is little as adorable as a mommy duck being followed by a trail of six or seven fluffy little baby ducks.
phenomenal! it sadly reminded me of when i was a little kid at the small airport where my father worked and there were many hummingbirds. unfortunately they would often get caught in spiders webs from the hangers and die from being entangled and i would, each day, search the bushes for them for burial. after trying to save them first, of course.
i love them and plant flowers each summer to keep them in my garden and coming to the feeder. and no big cobwebs out there either!
That was lovely. Thank you.
Beautiful! The nest especially! The momma bird really did look very contemplative in some of the shots.
What wonderful pictures! Great post, SideDish.
I don't know about nest eviction of sibs, but nearly every summer we seem to have 20 or 25 little buggers after having only a four or five pairs of parents. We always have at least two, if not three, feeders out in the back and two in the front, and we go through GALLONS of syrup.
Cute litte hum-birds, you say?
HA!
You guys think they're cute, but they're not. They are vicious gluttons. VICIOUS, I say! They start at the crack of dawn squabbling and twittering at each other, and keep it up all day. If you happen to be sitting on the deck during the last feeding of the day, it's like being in a swarm of flies--and DON'T wear red, unless you like being dive-bombed.
They tease the dogs and drive the cat wild by perching right in front of her when she's sleeping under the juniper bushes. They know she's there; they couldn't care less.
We're lucky in that we get Rufous, Broad-tailed, Calliope, Black-chinned, and an occasional Anna's.
I can't wait till they come back!
Get a feeder--the world needs more hum-birds.
gee bluehorse....what are you using to attract so many of them? i'd love to know the secret....maybe i can induce them up north.
it's not warm enough here for them to perch for more than a few seconds.
Gift
A day so happy.
Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.
Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.
I knew no one worth my envyng him.
Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.
To think that once I was the same man did not embarass me.
In my body I felt no pain.
When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.
--Czeslae Milosz
Hummingbird pauses at the trumpet vine
Mary Oliver
Who doesn’t love
roses, and who
doesn’t love the lilies
of the black ponds
floating like flocks
of tiny swans,
and of course, the flaming
trumpet vine
where the hummingbird comes
like a small green angel, to soak
his dark tongue
in happiness -
and who doesn’t want
to live with the brisk
motor of his heart
singing
like a Schubert
and his eyes
working and working like those days of rapture,
by Van Gogh in Arles?
Look! for most of the world
is waiting
or remembering -
most of the world is time
when we’re not here,
not born yet, or died -
a slow fire
under the earth with all
our dumb wild blind cousins
who also
can’t even remember anymore
their own happiness -
Look! and then we will be
like the pale cool
stones, that last almost
forever.
HUMMINGBIRD
Michael R. Collings
whisk of brown not even breath enough
for slash of red or shimmer-green
just whisk of brown beyond spring-
unfurled jasmine knots evanescent
leaves that surround white cream
and yellow fragrances beyond that whisk
of brown darning in and out of naked
ligaments clinging to their arbor
whisk of brown and blur of wing and
sense of needle-bill searching sweetness
in bitter white-sap jasmine not yet
resigned to bloom
Big Flap On the aerodynamic brilliance of the hummingbird...
Figure eights have it all!
TOO. MUCH. SQUEE!!!</b>
Teeny tiny baby hummingbird rescued!
Scroll down for some fantastic Rufous humm-bird photos
Link to the OtherFilter post from whence I stole the above from alms: humm-birds
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