You can check that site out for yourself at:  Hummingbirds.      I've heard about this among some raptors, and also the cuckoo, which lays its' egg in another bird's nest.  Later, the cuckoo chick pushes the host mother's own chicks out of the nest, and hogs all the food and attention for itself.   Yah, but HUMMINGBIRDS ??  We'll see.

HUMMINGBIRDS

THE LITTLE FAMILY NEXT DOOR

Right to the heart of the matter - I'm glad she knows how deep she can go, cause it sure looks to me as if the baby is being speared right thru.       The kids are getting bigger now, and starting to crowd the nest.  Last year another photographer documented a nest, and at about this time, one chick pushed the other out and hogged the nest for itself.

You can check that site out for yourself at:  Hummingbirds.      I've heard about this among some raptors, and also the cuckoo, which lays its' egg in another bird's nest.  Later, the cuckoo chick pushes the host mother's own chicks out of the nest, and hogs all the food and attention for itself.   Yah, but HUMMINGBIRDS ??  We'll see.

Imagine my surprise, when, while momma was away and I was preparing for the next round - I saw a movement at the nest.  Looking down, I watched a tiny beak nudging a black lump up out of the nest.  Yup, these tiny, blind babies are housebroke at 4 days old.  You can watch their progress by the accumulation of these sticky feces around the rim of the nest.

It was at about this point that I saw the next step in the housebreaking (nest-breaking ??) process.  Once again, while the mother was away and I was setting up for the next round of feeding, I noticed movement in the nest.......much easier to see now, since the 3 week old babies were twice the size of when they hatched, and the nest was becoming very crowded.  As I watched, a tiny butt lifted in the air, and "phhhhhttt," a jet of feces squirted over the side of the nest, narrowly missing Ray & Ora's car.  Ray immediately moved the car.  :-)            I've published several of these pictures on the Nikon Digital Forum on the 'net, and the comments were very gratifying.  One fella did mention that the accumulation of feces was detracting from the pictures.  Since I'd thought the same thing myself, I decided to clean things up a bit.  Note the actual size of the nest.

Due to the placement of the nest, and the different position mamma took for each feeding session, it was very awkward to try and set up a tripod, so all these shots were taken with the camera - a Nikon 5700 - 5 megapixel digital - being handheld.  What Fun ! ! !     The babies are just 4 days old here, (since hatching) and the tiny heads are about the size of peas.

During a conversation with snowbird neighbors Ray & Ora (who, you may recall, I visited at their summertime home in Minnesota last year) mentioned that "the hummingbird" was rebuilding her nest.  "Huh, what hummingbird," I asked.  "Same one as last time," was the reply, so I walked over to take a look.  Sure enough, there she was on her tiny nest in the base of the decorative porch lamp.  This proud parent is less than 1/2 the size of my index finger, and her nest would fit in 1/2 of a hollowed out lemon.       She's gorgeous ! ! !

It turned out that this stuff is so sticky, I couldn't move it without damaging the nest......so, bring out the scissors.  For this, I got flamed pretty good on the Forum, due to concerns over the mother abandoning the nest if disturbed.  I had thought of this, too, but by now she's quite used to people near her nest.  Then, too, I waited till she was away, before leaning out and very carefully trimming away the mess.  Great care was needed, since the tiny beaks were difficult to see against the fibers of the nest.  She returned, paid no attention to me, and  began feeding them again.  Note the size of the chick, and the developing pin-feathers.

Notice the baby's eye beginning to open, in the pic to the left.

Things were moving fast now, and the babies were exercising their wings, usually after mama left after a feeding session.  Now, too, the temperature soared, reaching a new record for Palm Springs in mid-March of 102 deg F.  The mother spent a fair amount of time shading the babies, and even fanning them with her wings.  The day after this was taken, the larger baby kicked the smaller out of the nest and took off on his own.

Altho' there was some doubt about him being old enuf to make it on his own, they believe they've seen him at the feeder, so maybeeeee.............. ??  Tho' his wing feathers are quite well developed, the rest of him isn't even completely covered.  The smaller one was put back in the nest, and the mother came and fed it several times, but by the next morning it had died.  Too bad, but I understand it's fairly common.  With all the effort of feeding a family, mama was a regular visitor to the local feeders, too.

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This was an interesting 5 weeks, and, surprisingly, many neighbors asked for prints after seeing those I made for Ray & Ora.  Very flattering for this amateur photographer, and now there are over a dozen sets of 8 x 10's scattered around the park..........or maybe I should say around Western Canada, since most of my snowbird neighbors have gone home for the summer.

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