Wednesday, August 10, 2016

leaving the nest



Now go forth and sip nectar and eat tiny bugs and keep doing that frenetically until you die. 

A nice video especially considering the uploader, Sheri Watson, had no intention of producing a video and had no idea about acceptable methods for recording development of birds. A very good project. Well done.

14 comments:

AllenS said...

That was pretty cool.

ndspinelli said...

I love hummingbirds. There are a lot in San Diego.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

fascinating nest construction

Dust Bunny Queen said...

That was very neat and timely. We have lots of hummingbirds that come to the feeders hanging below the limbs on our wild plum trees near our deck and yard. We like to sit outside when it cools down a bit, in our zero gravity chairs, have a couple of cocktails and watch the hummingbird wars.

Man those guys are fast and aggressive little shits. So we sit speculating on how they can live on sugar water given the enormous amounts of energy that they expend defending the feeders and fighting with each other. Also speculated on what hummingbird poop would look like. We had decided probably just gassy farts. Yeah. We speculate about some really dumb stuff :-)

So....it was really great to find out how they make their nests. That they eat bugs...probably those little noseeums that bite you and that they have actual poop.

What a great video. It answered a whole lot of questions.

Trooper York said...

Believe it not I get humming birds in my backyard near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn.

They are a treat as they work over the flowers in my backyard.

Great post as usual Chip. Thanks.

Adamsunderground said...

Hummingbirds always seem as if they might mistake your eyeball for a flower, skewering it before you had a chance to flee.

ndspinelli said...

DBQ, We discovered zero gravity chairs via our daughter. They are great for old bones.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Troop, didn't a dolphin swim around and die in the Gowns Canal a few years ago?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

It's interesting how similar they look to other birds, the younger they are - despite how different adult hummingbirds look from other birds.

Evolutionary embryology at work.

Trooper York said...

Yes a dolphin died in the Gowanus canal.

Along with a bunch of Puerto Ricans.

Christy said...

Cool video. Never saw one holding still, not flapping their wings. Flapping? That seems a totally inadequate word for hummingbird wings.

rhhardin said...

Baby Robins are eat and poop machines until about 2 weeks old, when they start identifying you. Then there are greetings and wing-flappy anticipation of food.

Raise them free outside once they're willing to explore. They'll come running over when you call.

They do hang around long after they can fend for themselves. One would wait in the trees at the back fence and come flying over and land in my hair when I came home. We never learned the land on the finger thing.

Blueberries are a treat they'll go for.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

@ Spinelli

Yes. Zero gravity chairs are really great. We bought them for our camp trailer, but decided they were so good we would put them out on the grass under the plum tree. We still have the Adirondack chairs for the deck. I really like the little side table to put your drinks on that slides back under the chair for storage.

At first the hummingbirds were skeptical of us being so close to one of the feeders but now they are used to us. They flit around the feeder and then zoom up into the tree to sit on a twiggy branch so they can ambush intruders. Very close to us. When the feeder gets low, they let us know and buzz in front of our faces and then around the feeder. Back and forth. Like. 'Hey!!! Do you guys SEE this. Fill it up!! Buzz buzzz buzzzzzz ...angry look.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Next you know someone is going to tell us about the sex chair they installed as a DIY project.