Humming-Bird Babies

I’ve had guests this year in the tree outside my studio window.  A mother humming-bird has built a nest!  She’s been the perfect guest, going to bed at dusk and not starting her day before dawn.  Never complaining when we had torrents of rain and winds strong enough to blow over our fence.  She laid two eggs and sat on them throughout all the storms.  She’s a good mother and an amazing engineer. She built her nest in a “Y” branch of our tallest tree, with an umbrella of leaves over her head.

The storms passed, the eggs hatched and my humming-bird mother continued to sit on her nest, keeping her two tiny babies warm.  The babies weren’t much to look at, so small I could hardly see them, but I could tell mom didn’t care about looks.  She’d fly off for food, snuggle back in the nest, and push her delicate beak down into the nest to feed them.  While all of this was happening, I was reading the book called “The Fastest Things on Wings” by Terry Masear.  Her book is funny, interesting and delightful.  Because of it, I knew what to expect from these amazing little birds.  If you have a backyard feeder I think you’ll enjoy this book.

My challenge was to figure out how I could photograph the babies.  My studio is on the second floor and trying to take a photo through a glass window doesn’t work very well. I decided to brace our tall ladder against the house near the nest, and climb up with my camera.  You can imagine how that went over when I asked my husband to put the ladder against the house. I didn’t get very far.

With me back in my studio, several weeks went by as I watched the babies grow.   I was beginning to think I might not get pictures.   Then I decided to remove the screen from the window furthest from the nest, use my telephoto lens, and lean out the window with my camera.  Success!

Just about the time I had all of this figured out, the mother hummingbird left the nest.  Thanks to Terry’s book I knew this was normal.  The mother returned every 30 minutes to feed her babies.

Then suddenly last week, my humming-bird nest became a hub of activity.  The babies were much more active, changing positions, pecking at the leaves over their heads, and preening.

The first baby tried out its wings, clinging to the side of the nest while flapping at a pretty good speed.