What could be cuter than a nest full of (which means two) baby Anna’s Hummingbirds?
Our friend, Carmel, took me recently to visit a hummingbird nest a neighbor’s yard.
The nest had been discovered by two young neighbor boys (budding birders!).
I climbed onto a conveniently place lawn chair to get a view of the small, lichen-covered nest ( conveniently built in a tree near the boys’ yard). The adult was sitting with two babies, looking around and up at the sky. Carmel and I originally thought that the adult was looking for its mate to bring food. We did some research and read that only the female is involved in raising the babies. That led us to believe that the mother was actually looking for predators before leaving the nest to get food.
Eventually, the mother flies off. I stayed on the chair, focusing on the babies, while Carmel gave me updates. “Okay, now the mother is in the tree above you…oh, she flew off again…she’s coming back…”
And if you ever wondered how a baby hummingbird poops, wonder no more!
From the Cornell All About Birds site, I learned that the female builds the nest and may decorate the outside with mosses and lichen. Yup. Also, the “clutch” size is two white eggs which incubate for 16 days. The nesting period is 20 days. I haven’t seen the birds lately, but I heard that the babies are now as large as the mother.