Second Nesting Attempts by Allen's Hummingbirds

While most birds are working on their first nests of spring, the Allen's hummingbirds in our yard are on round two.

This nest has two newly laid eggs. It isn't the best constructed nest, but it is in a shaded and protected location. The novice female hasn't been sitting on the nest as much as the more experienced moms.

The female in the front yard has been the only mother to successfully bring two chicks to fledging. See her first chicks just before they flew. Now she's back on the same nest with two new eggs. Last year her second nest was in a different location and nearly lost to the sun.

The nest on the patio successfully produced one fledgling. (The second chick died a day after our big wind storm. Amazingly the survivor lived for a week beside it's desiccated sibling. We considered trying to remove the dead chick, but the location of the nest made that difficult. The survivor was developed enough to try to escape and there was nothing, but cement, 12 ft beneath the nest. Ultimately, it was the right choice; the surviving chick is flying around the yard.)

In the canyon part of the yard, we discovered a nest with two healthy chicks just after they had hatched. The two chicks are just starting to develop their elongated hummingbird beaks. You can just see the second chick's beak at the left side of the nest. These two should be flying in a week and a half to two weeks.

So far this year all of the nests have been in our native Catalina cherry and its mainland relative the hollyleaf cherry. Only the patio nest was not in these specific plants. That is our key to having so many hummingbird nests in our yard–native shrubs. The growing pattern of the plants match the needs of the hummingbirds. Native plants also flower when the hummingbird mothers need food.

If you are keeping track, in 2019 so far, we've had :

• 8 nests
• one pair and three singleton Allen's hummingbird chicks successfully fledged - total of 5
• 2 chicks currently in a nest
• 4 eggs still being incubated 

Rescuing hummingbird chicks

Are You Watching a Hummingbird Nest?

Allen's hummingbird female

It is the last day of April and we have four active Allen's hummingbird nests in our yard. (Selasphorus sasin)

Two nests have eggs. 

Allen's hum nest in butterfly bush

Allen's hum nest high in Catalina cherry

One is in an ornamental butterfly bush (Buddleja). This nest is awfully low to the ground and poorly covered by vegetation. It is not a good location and the female will need good fortune to be successful. Her chicks may be vulnerable if summer temperatures over 100 degrees come early.

The other is high in a native Catalina cherry shrub (Prunus illcifolia). This is an excellent location.

Allen's hum chicks, 10-15 days old

'Fairy Tree' nest with hum chicks

Two of the nests have chicks. The 'Fairy Tree' nest has already seen two chicks fledge in March. The female rebuilt the nest and these two should fledge toward the end of May. 

This mother is experienced and has used this Catalina cherry as a successful location in the past.

Allen's hum nest in toyon

The fourth nest is in a native toyon.  (Are you seeing a pattern? Native shrubs are more likely to house successful hummingbird nests.)

Native plants not only provide native insects as food, they also grow at a rate similar to the growth of the chicks. Nests in fast growing ornamental plants sometimes are torn apart by the growing plant. The chicks can become homeless before they are ready to fly.

These two chicks, yes there are two tucked in close together, should fledge soon.

These four mother Allen's hummingbirds are busy. This is the second nest of the year for each of them. Two were successful the first time and two were not.

So far in 2018 that's eight Allen's hummingbird nests in our yard. I monitor my hummingbird nests for NestWatch, part of Cornell University's Citizen Science bird data program. To date, my Allen's hummingbirds are the only nests where data has been collected on the reproduction of this species in 2018. 

I know there are more of you out there watching hummingbird nests. NestWatch needs your data. Successes and failures are equally important. This year we had eggs that shriveled and a chick that died when the weather turned from unusually warm back to cold winter weather. 

Early nesting attempts can lead to failure. This is the insidious impact of warming winter temperatures. Plants and animals take signals from the weather to begin reproduction. Record warm temperatures in January can lead to chick deaths when February brings a return to cold weather and rain.

How do I spot the nests? I watch the females:

• Females gathering nesting materials will fly right back to their building locations. I put out natural nesting materials.
• Females sitting in one place with their beak angled down and making an up-and-down movement with their head are most likely nest building or feeding chicks.
• Females catching small flying insects are typically craving protein because they are about to lay or have laid eggs or are gathering protein for newly hatched chicks. Watch where they go. 
• When eggs or chicks are present females typically do not fly directly to a nest. They fly to the home bush or tree, then make several short movements approaching the nest.

Several friends, especially those on the Pacific Coast hummingbird migratory path, have told me they are seeing far fewer hummingbirds. Data will help figure out if these birds have changed their migratory path or if their numbers are declining.

Join me.  Collect data on your hummingbirds for eBird and NestWatch. The greater the data, the better the science. 

What to do with a baby bird? 

Rescuing Baby Hummingbirds

Spring is definitely here. Baby birds and nests are everywhere. Currently, there are two active Allen's hummingbird nests in the yard. (A-1 has two chicks and DR-2 still has eggs. The third nest, D-1, was abandoned after the female broke one of the eggs.)

The other day I had a comment from someone saying that they had a baby hummingbird and they didn't know if they should leave it alone or call for a rescue group to pick it up.

The baby Allen's hummingbird pictured here is still downy and can't fly. It is out of the nest, but its mother is still taking care of it. The chick calls to the mother and she only appears for short bursts to feed it. It does not need to be rescued.

Here are some key points to remember regarding baby birds.

1. No one can take better care of a baby bird than its parent. Young birds with feathers usually have NOT fallen out of a nest, but are learning to fly. Some species like hummingbirds and California towhees leave the nest before they can really use their wings. They hang out in shrubs for a few days learning to fly. BEFORE you try to save a baby bird, watch it for a while. There probably is a parent bringing it food. This spring the Bewick's wrens brought one of their young fledglings to the yard like it was day care. The young bird could barely fly. It poked around the patio and the planters all day. In the evening the parents came and took it home. This went on for 3 or 4 days. A few years ago a young crow spent about a week in the yard. It couldn't fly. Parents and siblings brought it food and usually, a family member was stationed to watch over it. In both cases, we did nothing but provide a safe place. Most birds are good parents. Rarely, do they abandon a chick.
   
2. Sometimes baby birds do fall out of a nest. The first step is to PUT THEM BACK. Most birds do not have a sense of smell. You are not going to scare off the parent.
3. Older chicks may push a younger or weaker sibling or out of the nest. If this is the case, there may be a reason. Perhaps the parent only has resources for one chick. In some cases, cowbirds will lay their eggs in other species' nests. The cowbird chick will push out the owner's chicks. This seldom happens in Southern California. I did have a situation in 2008 when very hot weather caused an older hummingbird chick to push its younger sibling out of the nest. In the photo, you can see the mother, "P" is perched on the nest. The larger chick, Pop, is in the nest. The smaller one, Peep, is on a branch beneath the nest. These chicks were only about a week from fledging, so they were mostly developed. We replaced the smaller chick, but it was pushed out again. We made a small replacement nest, put it about 8 inches from the original nest and the mother bird continued to raise both chicks successfully.
4. Parent birds typically leave their chicks while they go off to get food. Sometimes they stay away from the nest so that they don't attract predators. But parent birds come back to their offspring. A few years ago a friend had a fledgling CA towhee get stuck in her garage over night. She was concerned she was going to have to call a rescue person. In the morning we opened up the garage. The parents waiting outside, calling for the chick. It took a few hours, but the parent birds lured the chick out of the garage. Family reunited.

I can't say it strongly enough. The best way to rescue a baby bird is to reunite it with its parent.

Documenting Life With E-Bird

Two more Allen’s hummingbird chicks fledged today. L-1 is sitting at the top of the Lady Banks’ rose chirping for mom to bring lunch. It can’t quite fly, but it can hover a few inches at a time.

This afternoon the mother Bewick’s wren brought the first youngster of 2010 into the yard on a foraging expedition. She showed it a few prime hunting areas then went off to take care of the younger kids still in the nest. Junior Bewick’s wren has been left in the yard. Sometimes it feels like our yard is a playpen. Today there are 3 young hummingbirds and 1 young wren safely hidden in or exploring the confines of our yard.

This month I’ve been trying to increase my awareness of local biodiversity and participate in making others more aware as well.

I’ve started to really participate in e-bird. This on-line birding site allows birders across the country to document bird species. What you see in your backyard is recorded with the same scientific interest as rare species migrating through a wilderness area.

I’ve committed myself to expanding my observations from Project FeederWatch to e-bird as well. For e-bird I am making a weekly observation in my yard, a weekly observation at my local foothill park and a monthly observation at a state park.

E-bird offers a variety of ways to look at the data you collect and to see compiled information from other birders as well.

The program compiles the data you enter and it creates histograms showing when species are most likely to be seen at your location. It keeps lists of the species you’ve seen annually and life list.

Looking at everyone’s entered data, e-bird offers a way to search a species and see where it has been seen by other people. For example if you wanted to see a red-shouldered hawk, you could use the data to find out which month of the year it was most likely to be seen and then view a map with specific locations.

It is kind of fun that I can go to the map and see a specific location where I made an observation. My contribution to documenting the bird species in my neighborhood is right there on the map for everyone to see.

The young hummingbirds and the young wren were all inputted into e-bird as well. All three of these Allen’s hummingbirds are the offspring of Fik, the male hummingbird that my dog and I rescued in the summer of 2008.

Check out e-bird. Become a citizen scientist. It is hard not to care about local wildlife when you know their family stories as well as your own.

Today is Mother’s Day

Several times today, we scoured the bushes. Watched the tree for any sign of a clumsy baby hummingbird. But we found no sign of the baby. Inali and I weren’t the only ones looking. His mother would come back to the feeder, search the tree, sit close to the spot where she had fed him this morning. She called, but there was no answer.

I had resolved myself to the fact that something might have happened between those few hours of 10 and noon when he seemed to have disappeared.

As twilight started to fall, I sat across from the tree and watched as a constant flow of hummingbirds, Allen’s and a few Anna’s, stopped at the feeder to top off for the night. There was an awkward youngster that crash landed in the top of the tree before going to the feeder. But it seemed too large for the baby I had held in my hand this morning.

As it got gradually darker, the mother hummingbird perched on the branch where she had last seen her fledgling. We waited.

Then I saw a shadow appear from behind the ivy across the street. A cat. It’s been years since we’ve had a cat prowling this part of the street. Could this cat have spotted our little hummingbird on its perch 5 feet off the ground?

Inali barked and growled. The cat slunk down the street.

My heart dropped. It was getting darker. If the young hummingbird didn’t come back to roost in his nest tree with his mother, we would know something had gone wrong.

Mom chased off another hummingbird that attempted to come to the feeder while she was watching. She seemed as anxious as I was. The sound of her slapping bills with the Anna’s female was like the clashing of tiny sabres. Soon, she returned and sat on the feeder.

Together, we waited.

Suddenly a tiny figure dropped into the tree. It was nearly dark, 7:40 PM. The little hummingbird hovered above the feeder and came to rest beside the waiting female. It drank and then lost its footing and fluttered, like youngsters often do. Mom sat and watched it drink. Our relief was audible.

The little youngster had been exploring the neighborhood all day long. It is amazing how hummingbirds go straight from vulnerable to independent in an hour or two. After a few more slurps, he flew up to a tiny branch in the tree. Mom followed and they settled in for the night.

Tonight, this little one is on his own. It was a team effort, but we did it.

We saved this tiny baby and he has become a remarkable flying jewel.

For Pictures and the whole story.

The Rescued Baby Hummingbird

My heart is broken.

For the past three nights I have been gently plucking our baby hummingbird off of this man-made nest and bringing him inside. He seemed lacking the feathers to get him through the cold night without the shelter of a real nest. Each morning at 5:20 AM, just before sunrise, I carefully put him back on his tiny roost.

With the arrival of day, his mother would dutifully appear, feed him and watch over him.

Last night when I brought him in around midnight, his fluttering wings were stronger and he actually got lift. As I tucked him in for the night, I thought, “He might try to fly tomorrow.” When I put him in his “nest” this morning the process had become old hat. He easily fluttered from my hand onto his spot.

When I checked him at midmorning. He was about 6 inches from the nest on a tiny branch. Had he “flown” there? He still looked a bit downy to be truly flying. Mom came and fed him and our routine seemed to be working out just fine.

But when I went to leave the house at noon, he was gone. No tiny figure perched on the twig. I looked in the immediate area. Some hummingbird fledges test themselves with short flights, while I’ve seen others just take off and go straight from the nest.

When his mother came back I watched her do the same thing I had done. Look in his spot, search the immediate area, then become concerned. She came over to me, chirping. I tried to convey to her, that I didn’t have him. I hoped he would call to her and she would find him, but so far that hasn’t happened.

There are no signs of foul play. Inali has searched the planter. She found bits of the destroyed original nest, but this time no baby. I think he tried to fly and wasn’t as ready as he thought he was. I hope he is somewhere in the tree.

It is hard to move forward with the things I know I should be doing today. This baby hummingbird fluttered in my hand like a moth. The first time I brought him in for the night, his tiny tongue came out and tasted my hand. The second night, when he was shivering, he seemed to relax when my warm hand encircled him. His tiny claws actually clung to the ridges on the pads of my fingers. He was a bit of grace, a living wonder.


His mother, Inali and I, we’ll all keep searching.

A True Mother’s Day Story

I know why the hummingbird in the front, “F,” has babies that seem so far behind in development. (see Hard-Working Single Mom's). The branch she has built her nest on is at the top of the plum tree and just the slightest breeze can make it bend dramatically. I believe her first brood tumbled out of the nest , at only a few days old, in one of our March storms. She must have immediately laid two more eggs.

I came to this conclusion after watching her try to keep her two new chicks in the nest during a few windy days. Her chicks were about 8 days from flying, too big to sit on, but there she was trying to sit on the smaller of the two. All through the day she hunkered down on the edge of the nest trying to help the chicks ride out tossing wind gusts. With each moment of calm she would dash off to find food. Sometimes, while she was gone, a gust of wind would carry the chicks to a near vertical position.

The next morning one of the chicks was gone. Sometime during the night, it had disappeared. We looked through the planter beneath the tree but could find nothing.

For the last few days, I have checked the lone chick daily. The weather has been cool, but the winds have abated. “F” stays close to her nest . She and I are counting the days until her precious chick can fly.

Then yesterday afternoon I came home and as I walked up the front steps I glanced up at the nest. It was torn apart and hanging in three pieces. What had happened?

I looked around under the tree. “F” appeared. The Allen’s hummingbird was frantic. I have come to know the rapid peeping sound these females make when they are distraught. (Predators and hummingbirds). This little bird had worked so hard to be a mother.

Inali, our 5 year-old black lab / golden retriever mix, was out front too. She frequently birds with me. She grew up following 4 chickens around and has an affinity for birds. Inali started sniffing the ground beneath the tree. There it was a tell tale sign–a large dropping from a good-sized bird. The nest had probably been raided by a crow, jay or even the raven.

I kept telling “F” how sorry I was. But Inali kept sniffing. She froze and stared into the twisted undergrowth of African daisies. She kept staring. I followed her gaze, and there, deep withing the tangle of rambling stems, sat the tiny hummingbird baby. Somehow, as the nest was torn apart it had tumbled out, landed unharmed, and now clung to a twig with tiny feet.

We had to save this baby. My mind raced. Could I feed it and keep it alive for the next few days as it got all of its feathers and learned to fly? Probably, but if I could get it back up in the tree, maybe “F” would finish the job she had set out to do. Only she could encourage the baby to leap into hovering flight. Only she could take it to the best places to find food in the neighborhood.

I had to get this little one back up into some kind of nest in the tree. I carefully scooped it up in my hands and took it into the house. I tossed a towel in the fruit bowl and placed the chick there. A nest. How to make a nest?

I grabbed a small plastic cup that had held take-out salsa, cut it down, gathered dog hair and nesting wool to make a cozy inside and then taped it securely in the tree. I chose a lower branch, closer to the trunk. No more worrying about the wind. Then I set the baby in the manmade nest and told it to call for its mother. Everything happened in less than 10 minutes.

Inali and I retired to the house and watched from the window. We could hear thin squeaky chirps. “F” called for her baby. She checked high in the tree. She searched the ground near where it had been. She stopped. She called. There was an answer. Then I watched her triangulate, getting closer and closer, until she found the little one. My nest didn’t offer a convenient place for her to sit and feed her tired and frightened offspring, so “F” walked sideways down a twig and then turned over her shoulder to feed the hungry chick. Mother and baby were reunited.

Inali and I sat on the porch watching “F” chase off other hummingbirds and then returning to feed her chick. Then “F” came over to us and hovered a few feet away looking right at us. I could feel her gratitude. Together the three of us had saved her baby.

The chick doesn’t really like my nest. It prefers sitting on the edge. Last night was going to dip into the low 40s. Afraid that it would be too cold without the comfort of a real nest, especially after its traumatic day, I scooped it up last night after dark. It slept soundly in a plastic container cushioned with paper towels. At 5:20 AM, before the sun came up, I put it back in the makeshift nest. “F” is feeding it again this morning. The baby is stretching its wings and fluttering.

This baby hummingbird has three mothers–its natural mother, me and a big black dog that saved its life.

Hard Working Single Mom - Allen’s hummingbirds

The yard is filled with young birds just out of the nest. The California towhees have dropped off the first youngster of the year and gone off to raise a second brood. When I go out to pull a few weeds in my neglected vegetable garden, I usually have a companion. The young towhee keeps me in sight as it prowls the undergrowth for insects and seeds. I’m not sure if I am company or a second pair of eyes to watch for the Cooper’s hawk.

Unlike the towhees where both parents participate in feeding and raising the young, hummingbird females are all on their own. We don’t have many hummingbirds at our feeders, what we have is a nursery area–five or six Allen's hummingbird females nesting in specifically drawn territories. We seldom see males. The girls don’t want flashy breeding guys drawing attention to the location, so they typically chase them away. Occasionally a young male, usually hatched here, will be allowed to stay for a while. But as he reaches maturity, he is told in no uncertain terms that this area is off limits. Hummingbird mothers work hard to lay, incubate and then feed their young. They don’t want a male attracting attention and risking the lives of vulnerable nestlings.

Right now, the busiest kids in the yard are the four Allen’s hummingbirds that have fledged in the last two weeks. This year I have found four nesting females: A, C, D and F. A hatched here in the yard in 2005. When her mother disappeared, she seemed to inherit her mother’s territory. Last year she had trials as a mother, A’s nesting in 2007, this year she laid early and had her kids out of the nest before the jays came marauding.

A’s first brood fledged on 4/1 and 4/2. Typically, hummingbird eggs are laid a day or so apart and frequently the youngsters will be staggered in their maturity.

D made her first nest high in a grevillia tree, but it was destroyed in one of our winter storms. Her second nest was lower in a protected area and her two youngsters fledged on April 14, 2008. Here you can see one sitting on the edge of the nest and the slightly older one sitting about six inches from the nest. They both fluttered their wings furiously, exercising their flight muscles, buzzing a few inches at a time.

In the second picture the younger fledgling has its wings spread wide as it tries to learn to fly.

Mom kept returning all day to feed them and offer support. The older youngster flew off by midday and between 5 and 6 PM the younger one took flight as well. Yesterday, the two new kids were quite noticeable as D took them to visit the various feeders in the yard. There was quite a flutter when A’s youngsters realized there were two new hungry beaks at the feeder.

Today the fledglings are pretty much on their own. You can see them exploring different plants in the yard, trying to get the hang of what has nectar and what does not.

Meanwhile, just two days after her job with one brood of youngsters is done, D is building a new nest to start the process all over again. She has moved to a small ficus bush and started the nest‘s button foundation. She will continue to build it up with plant and animal fibers, spider webbing and bits of different materials.

What about C and F ? C’s youngsters should fledge in the next 4 to 5 days. And then there is F. I’m not sure what is going on in her nest. It’s a mystery. There were hatchlings, but they never seemed to get bigger. She’s still on the nest. Stay tuned, we’ll solve it.

Hummingbird Soap Opera

Well, there is no doubt about it. Having the scrub jay frequenting the yard made our little female Allen's hummingbird reevaluate the nest she created on top of her mother's deserted nest from last year. (See the nest)

She stayed away and abandoned the tiny lone egg. When I checked the nest late Tuesday night, there was no mother incubating and the cool temperatures were too much for the egg to survive.

When I checked the nest Wednesday morning, the egg was gone and the side of the nest was slightly torn–probably by a bird larger than a hummingbird sitting on the edge.

Some nests are made in unsuccessful locations. This was the second batch of eggs lost in this one specific nest site.

The fascinating thing to me is this tiny hummingbird with a brain the size of this "O" realized she had made an untimely choice. Rather than fight against brutal odds, she abandoned her hard work rebuilding the nest and the resources committed to the egg. She let it go.

Then she disappeared for three days. Where did she go?

I think she went off to mate again. She's back now and fervently trying to drive off her last batch of youngsters. She's also building a new nest somewhere in the holly cherry shrubs. I haven't spotted it yet. This time she is being very secretive.

Of Mourning Cloaks and Hummingbirds

The more I watch the life dramas that play out in my backyard the more aware I am of how interconnected life is.

Spring has come barreling across the Southern California landscape. Plants that survived the frost leafed out in record time.

The Chinese elm went from leafless to brilliant green in five days. The first hummingbird babies of the season took to the air March 23.

With her first brood of youngsters out of the nest, Alena, a one-year-old Allen’s hummingbird, began renovating a nest her mother, Hummy, built last year. This location, in a downward hanging elm branch, was not successful for her mother. Hummy’s second brood was discovered and eaten by a predator, probably another bird. (See Hummy on original nest)

When Alena chased off a group of bush tits that were eyeing the potential building materials available in this old nest, I thought she was anxious about the activity near her fledglings. I had no idea Alena had decided to build her second nest on top of her mother’s old nest.

If you look at the picture, you can see the cone-shaped bottom of the old nest. The rounded, upper half of the nest is new construction.

Enough with the background.

The real story begins with frass. That’s right, frass, the poop from insect larva. If you’ve ever grown tomatoes and had tomato worms, actually tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) you know what large-caterpillar frass can look like–tiny chunks of black charcoal. You may not see a tobacco hornworm or a cabbage looper but the trail of leaf damage and frass will lead a discerning eye right to the munching, pooping source.

Well, there was a lot of frass on the patio under the elm tree. Something was up there munching away on the new green leaves. Something that was numerous and rapidly getting larger.

For the past three years, western scrub jays have been infrequent visitors to our yard. West Nile virus has decimated the scrub jays, mockingbirds and American crows in our neighborhood several times since its arrival. But suddenly Saturday morning, a scrub jay was making a racket as it made it’s way through the trees.

Spiny elm caterpillars, the larva of mourning cloak butterflies (Nymphalis antiopa), were marching down out of the elm tree across our patio and up the walls of the house. Some of them were done eating and pooping and they were looking for a safe place to enter the chrysalis stage of their development. The jay had found a banquet .

While searching for roving caterpillars, the jay stumbled across another delicacy–hummingbird nestlings. From the far side of the yard a second female Allen’s hummingbird frantically voiced alarm calls. The scrub jay had found her nest in the eucalyptus tree. Alena and two other female Allen’s hummingbirds came to their cohorts aid. The foursome buzzed the jay and tried to drive it off, but it was too late. The jay consumed one youngster and flew off with the second. It was probably taking the morsel back to its own offspring.

The next morning, Alena laid an egg in her new nest.

But now the nest that seemed safe is in a dangerous place. Caterpillars continue to march down out of the elm and this morning two scrub jays were on the prowl.

The hummingbird egg sits quietly alone in the nest. Alena is not sitting on it.

Is she staying away so as to not draw attention to the nest? Has she decided to abandon the egg, realizing the nest is not in a safe location?

If the caterpillars hadn’t been so successful and their numbers so great, the jay might not have spent any time in the yard. The hummingbird nests might have been safe all summer. If Alena had made her second nest in a different tree or avoided the location that was probably raided by a jay last year, brooding her second clutch might have been as easy as the first.

Now everything is more complicated.

Life is a delicate dance. The living constantly effect each other. The weather benefits some and challenges others. No action or inaction is without effect.

Allen’s Hummingbirds Take to the Air

It was only 20 days from the first tiny hummingbird emerging from its egg to Saturday, March 23 when the pair tried their new wings and took to the air.

Just two days before flying the youngsters were still in the nest.

Allen's hummingbirds 3/03/07 when they hatched, first week, second week.

I’ve watched this transformation from minute oval egg to flying wonder before, but it never ceases to amaze me.

The young ones are buzzing about the yard. They are noticeable by their clumsy landings, their lingering at the feeder, and the fact that their mother still allows them to share a perch near her. By next week they will be hard to distinguish from the other hummers.


Empty Nest

From blueberry-sized pearls
Hatched, naked
Blind, earth babies
Wrinkled brown skin
Scarce tufts of down

Silently they huddled in
Half walnut-shell bower
Waiting for mother's
Blossom-kissed tongue

In a breath of days
Stubby beaks
Grew long and slender
Silken-thread tongues tasting
Leaves and branches

Rubbery appendages transformed
To pulsating wings
Hovering, in first baby-step flight
Then a dip, a dive
A streak across the garden

How quickly life can
Form before your eyes
Lull you into complacency
Leave you hungry for its miracle
When the nest is empty

Copyright Keri Dearborn 2001

Trapdoor Spiderlings and Hummingbirds

Babies, babies, babies. Imagine my surprise when walking through the yard yesterday I discovered an open trapdoor spider burrow. When I looked inside I found 100 to 200 spiderlings.


Down in the burrow there were BB-sized bumps on the wall of the tunnel. When I brushed them slightly with a piece of straw, the bumps moved. A flashlight revealed the ‘bumps’ were the abdomen’s of baby trapdoor spiders.

Here is where the tale gets unusual, the trapdoor that should have been closed and protecting these young spiders had been surgically removed. It was laying intact beside the opening. There did not appear to be any obvious signs of force to open it. It’s silken hinge had just been neatly severed.

About four inches to the left was another trapdoor spider burrow of the same size tightly sealed, its resident safe behind its closed door.

Was the door to the spider nursery removed by a predator? If so, there were a lot of spiderlings that not been eaten. In fact I just checked on them, and 24 hours later, they are still clinging to the side of the tunnel, though some seem to be down lower in the tunnel, probably to escape the heat of the day.

Was their mother eaten? I don’t know. If so, will these spiderlings starve or be eaten without her protection?

Or is their mother living in the tunnel next door? Perhaps this was the nursery burrow. I have noticed that a number of larger trapdoor spider burrows seem to have an equal-sized neighbor right next door.

Perhaps these spiderlings are just big enough be introduced to the world and mom has literally opened the door for them to go. I really don’t know and haven’t been able to find anything that might explain this mystery.

I will keep an eye on them and see if they do start to head out on their own.

Meanwhile the Allen’s hummingbirds are growing. Their feathers are coming in and their beaks are beginning to elongate. (When they hatched and first week)

The spiderlings have been developing all winter, the hummingbirds will be out of the nest in weeks. Amazing what you can run across on a warm spring day.

Two Hummingbird Nestlings !

Yes, there are TWO!

Here you can see there are two nestlings and they nearly fill the nest. Their heads are toward the right and their two little backs with the tiny wings along the sides are pointing down toward the left side.

You can’t deny that spring has come when the baby Allen’s hummingbirds are doubling their size weekly.

Mother hummingbird is working hard to feed her two hungry youngsters, a job made much easier by the rapid blooming of many flowering plants. Last week she was focused on catching a lot of insects, whether that was for protein for the tiny hatchlings or to rebuild her own resources after her time sitting on the eggs, I don’t know. Now she seems to prefer nectar.

Two other female Allen’s hummingbirds are also nesting in the adjacent area.

One of them has her nest hidden in a photinia bush. This morning I saw an unexpected possible predator in the same bush–a one-foot-long alligator lizard basking in the sun on a branch about four feet off the ground. Hopefully, mother hummingbird has placed her nest out of the lizard’s reach.

Two days ago, I watched a pair of bushtits working very hard to pull building materials from a hummingbird nest that was used two years ago. They’ve come back to the abandoned nest several times to gather fluff for their current nest.

Last year’s Allen’s hummingbird nest, from which the hatchlings were taken by a predator, was a site of great interest yesterday for a group of 20 bushtits. Initially, the group of tiny birds scouted out the old nest where their relatives have been gathering materials. Then one at a time, three individual bushtits came down within a foot of last year’s nest. There was a great deal of chatter.

After a short hunt for insects, several bushtits returned to the area above the abandoned nest. Two birds each came down within an inch of the empty nest and looked at it closely. Again there was a great deal of chatter. As the bushtits moved around in the shrubs they got within five feet of the new hummingbird nest. Mother hummingbird had had enough of the visitors. The bushtits are about the same size as the hummer, and no real threat, but she loudly chastised them and chased them off. I imagine within a few days, pairs of bushtits will be back to begin collecting their own building materials from the abandoned hummingbird nest.

Last year’s red-shouldered hawk nest has also been reduced to a thin layer of twigs. The red-shouldered hawks, ravens, crows and band-tailed pigeons have all been pilfering the sticks and twigs to build new or to renovate old nests.
Birds are efficient recyclers. We could learn a lesson from their sustainable use of resources.

Baby Hummingbird Hatches!

The Allen’s hummingbirds have hatched!

Look closely and you will see a yellowish-orange triangle deep in the nest on the right-hand side. This is the beak on one of the hatchlings. There were two eggs. When I went to check this morning, there were no eggs visible.

My first thought was, “Oh, no. The wind yesterday or last night knocked the little eggs out of the nest.” I should have known better. The hummingbird mother would have never left the nest in the night.

Initially, I couldn’t tell for sure if there was anything in the nest. With the camera on macro and holding it at arms length, I was finally able to snap a picture where I could just make out one hatchling.

Is there a second one? I’m not sure.

Remember how small they are. The nest is only an inch and a half wide. The tiny hatchling is about the size of the fingernail on my pinky finger. The nest is nearly an inch deep, so it is possible that there is a second hatchling that I couldn’t see.

Babies are always exciting, but baby hummingbirds are uniquely special. The mother hummingbird was frantically busy all day gleaning insects so she could supply a high protein meal for her tiny ones. Stay-tuned and we will watch them grow up.