Ezra's hummingbirds
Original 3/16/06
Updated 3/22/06
Updated 4/9/06
Minor revisions 6/16/08

Spring 2006 – Ezra is 3 1/2 years old, and a hummingbird has made her nest in the tree in front of his house, just below Ezra's bedroom window. He calls her Lola.
Lola is an Anna's Hummingbird - for more information on the species see the Cornell web page. The tree she is in is a Japanese maple of some sort, which is handy because it has no leaves (yet) to hide the nest from our curiosity.

We first noticed the nest in early February, and Jonathan who also lives in Ezra's house (he's Ezra's dad) first saw there were eggs in mid February.

Here's a view of the tree and the house. The nest (with Lola sitting on it) is the small dot just over half way up on the left.

Ezra's bedroom window is directly above the nest in this picture.









Here's Ezra pointing to the nest
 

And this is the view from his bedroom window.

This is what the nest looked like on February 17th.

Notice how Lola seems to be sitting on top of the nest at this point, but she kept making it bigger, and soon she was more inside it. I'll try to include another picture of her on the nest later on to show the difference.
I first got a picture inside the nest on February 26th and we confirmed there were two eggs.
OK, so the books say an Anna's Hummingbird normally sits on the eggs for 14 to 19 days. Assuming the eggs were laid around February 19th they should have hatched by around March 5th at the latest. But they didn't. By March 11th, we were all thinking the eggs had died.

But on the 12th Jonathan saw one baby bird had hatched. Maybe it took longer because of the cold weather (it was well below freezing for a few days early in the incubation period).

This is what things looked like that day. It doesn't look much like a bird, does it? What we are seeing is a naked chick with black skin and a couple of wisps of down on its back (I think).
The next day this is what the camera saw. Notice a tiny yellow beak gaping, and more down on the back.



By the way, if you're wondering how I get these pictures, I put the camera on a monopod and hold it up above the nest and use the 10 second timer to trip the shutter when the camera is in position. I am using a Panasonic DMC-FZ1 which has the handy feature that when you use the timer the focusing and auto exposure happens at the end of the 10 seconds not at the beginning.
The next day I got this picture. The chick is mostly hidden by the edges of the nest.

Notice the other egg hasn't hatched. The book says they usually hatch about a day apart, so maybe this one isn't going to...
And this is what the chick looks like on March 15th. The feathers have grown noticeably since the last shot that showed them (3 days ago)

For a comparison with Lola's chick, there are a couple of web sites that show a similar sequence of photos taken in California, one in 2003, and one in 2005. Those are Allen's Hummingbirds, though, not Anna's, but they are similar.







Getting tired of nest shots? Here's a not very good picture of a male Anna's coming to the feeder while I am still putting it up.

We feed them sugar solution (1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water, stir, boil for 2 minutes, serve at room temperature).

The red food coloring that is in the "hummingbird food" you can buy at the store is bad (more info here)








This is march 16th. You can see the nest is getting elongated as the baby grows.











March 17th. The beak is noticeably longer now.












next day







Lola is spending a lot of time perched in nearby trees now, and only seems to sit on the nest, brooding the chick, at night.

She doesn't seem to mind humans, at least if we are below her!

March 21. This is the first picture that shows the eyes are open. It's hard to see in the main shot, so here's a close-up.

               

 Hummingbirds are born with eyes that can't open, but at about age 5 days they can open them.  Today the chick is about 10 days old, so it probably has had its eyes open for a while, this is just the first time the camera caught it.







Here's a rather fuzzy picture of Lola feeding her baby, taken from Ezra's bedroom window.









The feathers are getting longer and starting
 to look green now (22nd March)







Lola spends a lot of time off the nest now, presumably the chick is able to maintain its temperature by itself at this stage. But on rainy days, and at night still, she sits on the nest.

Here's a shot of both of them covered with rain drops.







Today the feathers cover the whole back - it really looks like a bird now. But notice there are still some wisps of down part way down the back. We'll see more of those later.
This is the last picture I got of the chick in the nest. On March 27th it left the nest and was seen perching in nearby shrubs and trees.

Also, Ezra has given the baby hummingbird a name.
Introducing........  Fan-Fan
Fan-Fan  spent a lot of time just sitting, and being fed by mom, but he/she also preened and did it's exercises.

Baby hummingbirds look the same whether they are boys or girls, and we can't tell which sex Fan-Fan is.

But, it's going to be hard to keep saying 'it' or 'he/she' every time, so I'll make a guess and call Fan-Fan 'he' from now on.
Here's Fan-Fan's first perch (on the left, in the small leafless shrub) - remarkably close to human activity, and he didn't budge when kids were playing nearby.
By next morning Fan-Fan was higher up in another Japanese Maple. Further from cats, so we were all glad he was out of harm's way.

Here Lola has arrived and is preparing to regurgitate the baby's next meal.

Baby hummingbirds get a mixture of nectar and insects.



And here is feeding in progress. Notice Fan-Fan's tongue sticking out.





Another view of feeding, below...
(notice the down on his back)



Fan-Fan keeps exercising his wings. We saw him fly around in the tree today (March 29th). He hovered from place to place - slow and uncertain, at least it seemed uncertain to us. But flying nevertheless.
Ready for Fan-Fan's next meal



Down it goes.

With mom's beak so far in, it makes you wonder if she has to poke the back of his throat to get him to swallow! (see movie below for more on that idea)



And below mom is arriving with yet more food...
(notice again the wisps of down on Fan-Fan's back)
This picture is kinda fuzzy, because it's a frame from a movie I took of feeding. See how far she puts her beak into his throat!
  A portrait of Fan-Fan
Aren't the feathers beautiful?

In this shot you can see the edges of all his wing primaries tucked along the side of his body (they are the ones that produce most of the lift when a bird flies) and an end-on view of the tail feathers which have creamy tips.

Notice also the raised feathers on the upper back and head - birds can raise and lower parts of their plumage at will












Fan-Fan looks like he's posing for the camera.

You can just see the wisps of down on his back. And the tiny points on his tail feathers.

(remember, I'm only guessing he's a boy, we really can't tell)








Fan-Fan is flying much more strongly now (April 2nd), moving from tree to tree. He's not as fast as an adult yet, but much more capable than before.










My last photo of Fan-Fan. We haven't seen him in our courtyard since April 4th. Presumably he has graduated to the big outside world and is exploring other parts of the neighborhood.

Good luck, Fan-Fan!

created by Pat Little
2006, Seattle