The start of a hummingbird nest in a potted Desert Rose at Harbour Club Villas and Marina
Two weeks ago, I noticed a hummingbird flying around a Desert Rose that I had growing in a pot at our villas at Harbour Club Villas and Marina. I noticed something on a branch and on looking closer discovered the start of a nest. She was a busy little bird flying to and fro gathering bits of bark, spiders nests, fibers and the hairs from the Old Man Cactus. An amazing piece of work!
Here she is perched on the nest.
A close-up view of the nest showing the delicate, soft bits lining the inside.
Here she is bringing back some wisps of white fluff for the nest.
Love this one as she looks overcome by all the bits and trying to pack them down.
Hummingbirds bring little bits of fluff, bark, fibers back to the nest a little at a time and it’s glued all together with spider webs. The nest will stretch because of the spiders webs as the babies grow. The photo above shows her with webs over her beak and body as she tries to pack it all down. The hummingbird will camouflage the nest as much as she can by using small sticks, bark and plant pieces for the darker outside of the nest. The parts of the nest that may catch the sun are done with lighter materials while the darker parts of the nest are in the shade and blend in with the surroundings.
Notice that the nest is beginning to take shape and this is three days after I first spotted it.
She uses her wings and presses the nest against her body so that she can get the perfect shape and rounds off the center.
The nest is pointed towards the bottom join in the branch and you can clearly see the bits of plant materials used.
The nest is getting bigger and more rounded but it’s only like less than two inches across.
She’s letting me come up fairly close to her as I take all my photos.
My little hummingbird lays her first egg seven days from my noticing the nest.
She continues building the nest and doesn’t start incubating the eggs until she lays the second one.
Pretty colours as she lands on the nest.
I managed to capture her flying in with wings spread and feet grasping the edge of the nest.
Beak open as she brings more plant material for her nest.
It’s difficult to catch them in flight as the wings are beating so fast.
And then there were two little eggs. She laid them two days apart.
She will now start incubating the eggs and continue to build up the nest.
My desert rose is starting to bloom.
Usually the Momma hummingbird works on her nest for about four hours per day with many, many trips to gather materials as well as feed. She can make as many as 40 trips in a day.
She will sit on the nest incubating the two little jelly bean sized eggs for approximately 16-18 days before they hatch.
And so, she’s sitting on the eggs probably until the end of September when hopefully I’ll be able to post more photos of the eggs hatching and baby hummingbirds in the nest. I can’t wait. Make sure to check back in to see the babies. Marta http://www.harbourclubvillas.com