Hummingbird Nest at Harbour Club Villas Part 3

Posted on March 14, 2020 by marta

At about two weeks old, the baby hummingbird is filling the nest nicely — At two weeks old, the baby hummingbird is filling the nest nicely

The little hummingbird grows very fast in its’ third week of life. Mama is flying back and forth and feeding every half hour or so. When females feed their young she inserts her long bill into a part of their esophagus and passes to them a mixture that is both nectar and insects.

Such comfort but can you imagine if there were two babies.

Nestling being fed a mixture of nectar and insects

Baby is getting quite big and can catch flying insects

Showing perspective of just how tiny the nest is

At three weeks of age, the little baby hummingbird is looking like a real hummingbird. It keeps testing its wings more and more in preparation for flight. In the next few days, this little one will fly off and I will no longer be able to photograph him daily. Sad really but I loved having been able to catch this all on camera from nest building to baby’s flight.

Hungry after that exercise and mama’s right there

And here’s the very last photo of the young hummingbird

For many weeks I photographed this delightful hummingbird. A nest was built by the mother hummingbird and she laid two eggs. One egg disappeared but I was lucky enough to film the little nestling right through to a few days after leaving the nest.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.

Marta

www.harbourclubvillas.com

Hummingbird Nest at Harbour Club Villas Part 2

Posted on March 13, 2020 by marta

Two little eggs were laid but only one left……….perhaps taken by one of our critters like a pygmy boa.

Unfortunately, one day when I looked in the nest, only one egg remained. I asked around and found out that it could have been a snake that made off with the egg. In any case about two weeks after the eggs were laid, a baby hummingbird hatched.

Just hatched…too bad I didn’t get it on camera!

The mother hummingbird disposes of the broken egg shells after the babies are hatched. When the baby hummingbirds hatch, they have no feathers and dark skin and they are hatched with their eyes are closed.

Momma flies in to feed the little one.

The mother hummingbird drinks nectar and eats tiny bugs. she then will regurgitate the slurry substance that her baby can easily digest. She flies in every 20 minutes or so to feed this mixture to the baby hummingbirds. Of course there are usually two babies to feed so she’s kept very busy.

Big yellow beak and wide open mouth just waiting to be fed.

The baby grows pretty fast and the feathers are coming in.

When the baby hears the whirring of the Momma’s wings, it pops up and opens its beak ready for feedings

A good perspective so that you can see how tiny the nest is as compared to an adult hand

When the baby hummingbirds are first born, the mother hummingbird will spend most of her time sitting on the nest, keeping the baby hummingbirds warm.

The baby hummingbirds will feel the wind from the wing of their mother and lift their little heads up and open their mouths.

The mother hummingbird puts her beak all the way down into the mouths of the baby hummingbirds while dropping a little of the regurgitated insects and nectar inside.

Big commotion and twittering as the momma hummingbird chases off a curly tail lizard……she fans out her tail feathers as a warning.

The baby quickly doubles in size.

After one week, the baby hummingbird is covered in tiny little fuzzy feathers

The baby spends a lot of time snoozing but grows very quickly with all the daily feedings

More to come as the baby starts moving around more and grows large enough to fill up the nest.

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Hummingbird Nest at Harbour Club Villas Part 1

Posted on March 13, 2020 by marta

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

Humming Birds at Harbour Club Villas Part 2

Posted on June 28, 2012 by marta

The hummingbird nestlings are hungry all the time and have tripled in size.

Our little baby hummingbirds are growing so fast and are now fluffy and always hungry. Mama hummingbird spends her days flying back and forth feeding them and they fill up the nest with scarcely room for her now.

Little hummingbirds almost fill up the nest but Mama still manages to squeeze herself in.

Mama hummingbird feeding her babies

Beautiful little hummers all soft and feathery and look how they fill up the nest now.

More sweet nectar as the mother hummingbird feeds her little ones

Poolside hummingbird nest and I'm amazed at how it has survived some pretty strong winds.

Beautiful irridiscent feathering on the Bahama Woodstar hummingbird

Hungrily this little one opens up his beak just as it waits for some food.

I'm hoping I'll get to photograph them as they start trying their wings ready to fly.

The palm frond is sagging quite dramatically and turning yellow so it won’t last too much longer. Enough time though for these two little ones to start trying their wings. The nest has survived some brutally strong winds and rain plus a lot of sun making for a real hot spot with not enough shade. We did put up some shade cloth but after the wind ripped it down a couple of times, we just gave up.

Hoping to have more photos as the week goes on.

Marta

www.harbourclubvillas.com

Hummingbirds at Harbour Club Villas

Posted on June 14, 2012 by marta

She built her little nest in the pygmy palm right at the entrance to the pool at Harbour Club Villas.

A Bahama Woodstar hummingbird built her tiny nest right at the entrance and walkway to the pool at Harbour Club Villas and Marina. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve walked by there and not noticed anything until that one time when I looked straight at her sitting on her nest. It is such a joy for me to be able to photograph these tiny little birds and right on our doorstep. Can’t imagine what possessed her to build a nest on a main walk through though! On May 28th morning, we discovered the nest and that same afternoon she laid her first tiny egg followed by the second a day later. Today, the second baby hummingbird hatched.

She is so tiny and has beautiful colours on her wings.

Flying in for a landing as she returns to her eggs.

Look at the irridiscent green of this little hummingbird's head and wings.

Here she is in flight.....so difficult to catch as my camera has a delayed shutter and I frequently miss those great shots.

The first little baby hummingbird hatches and it won't be long before the next one arrives.

It has been so hot and the pygmy palm is a little lacking in full on shade for the Mama hummingbird.

Note the piece of egg shell caught on the nest. She must have pecked it out so the baby birds would have room in the nest.

Can you see that she is actually standing in the nest......probably because of the heat these last two days while the eggs were hatching.

They are so tiny and ever so cute waiting for mama hummingbird to return

Feeding time for the little ones!

Perched on the side of the nest with one baby visible

A closer view of the two little hummingbird chicks and check out their soft, downy looking bottom of the nest

The proud mama hummingbird..........not too much rest for her in the days to come!

Hopefully I’ll be able to do a part 2 as the baby hummingbirds grow. I’m a little worried as the palm frond is already yellowing and has a definite downward droop to it. It’s also really hot and not an awful lot of shade.

Enjoy the photos,

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Hummingbird Re-Cycles Nest

Posted on August 18, 2011 by marta

A new hummingbird appeared and began adding a second storey to the old existing nest

Can you believe it? A week ago, we were surprised to see that our old hummingbird nest in the cactus beside the walkway to our house, had grown taller. It wasn’t a few minutes later, that I heard her! A new hummingbird mama had seen the nest and decided to re-use and re-cycle the old nest. She was busily adding a second storey to the old nest to build it up a little more.

Here's the nest showing the new portion between the two stars.

The nest is totally about 1 3/4 inches and the addition is almost a half inch. Still pretty tiny all things considered. Mama has laid her second egg (yesterday) and is now sitting on the nest leaving periodically to feed.

Here's the nest from the back side showing all the fine strands of cobwebs used as "glue" to secure the nest.

I wanted to show you the new materials and fluff that has gone into recycling the top of the old nest.

A backside view of the Bahama Woodstar hummingbird sitting on a nest with two little eggs

Nesting hummingbird ... how sweet she is!

So here I go again! I’ll keep taking more photos………….I can’t tell you how many I already have but there’s tons!!

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Hummingbirds Getting Bigger Part 2

Posted on August 18, 2011 by marta

The two baby Bahama Woodstar hummingbirds are squished into the tiny nest as they continue to grow.

The above photo was taken a month ago and as you can see, the little birds are growing very fast. The nest is glued and held together with cobwebs and this enables the babies to compact and stretch the nest to hold the both of them. Clever little birds they are and when they just get too big, they are ready to fly.

Please check the previous blogs.

From building the nest..http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2601

To laying the eggs…http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2616

To the chicks hatching…http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2699

The chicks getting bigger…http://myturksandcaicosblog.com/?p=2745

One little baby sits almost on top of the other.

At a different angle, the baby birds are definitely getting too big for the nest and sure enough the day after the photo, we missed one flying out of the nest

What excitement as we managed to catch the one baby leaving the nest and making his first flight. The other little one must have been hidden in the bushes and trees.

Here it is.....ready to fly off into the big world!

It's first flight was from the nest to a nearby Opuntia cactus where he perched for a few minutes

Here the baby hummingbird lifts off and flies up into our large bouganvillea

It has been such a joy to take all these photos from start to finish…………right from when we discovered the nest just being built to seeing the eggs hatch and the birds grow and fly away. Nature is so wonderful !!

Now just when I was getting used to leaving my camera behind…………..we have another event unfolding!!!!

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Hummingbirds Getting Bigger

Posted on July 13, 2011 by marta

Here's the MaMa hummingbird feeding one of the babies that I managed to catch on camera.

Ten days ago, the little baby hummingbirds were tiny and scrawny with hardly any feathers. I spent hours trying to get photos of her feeding them but she was really edgy if I got up too close. The last few days or so she doesn’t spend as much time sitting on the nest as the little ones are growing fast.

A baby opens his bright yellow beak wide ready for a meal.

They are now filling up the nest and are all feathery.

Often when I walk past the cactus, all I see is two little beaks sticking up out of the nest.

The mother will feed the nestlings on small insects and nectar by inserting her bill into the open mouth of a nestling and regurgitating the food.

A close up shows the little ones nestled together with beaks resting on the edge of the nest.

The Mama Bahama woodstar humming bird watches me from a nearby branch

The hummingbird mother pushes the food down the chicks’ throats with her long bill directly into their stomachs. The little chicks are brooded only the first week or two, and left alone after about 12 days – probably due to the small nest size. The chicks leave the nest when they are about 20 days old.

Twin beaks peaking out of the nest which is made of silks and apparently expands a bit as they grow.

The young hummingbirds are beginning to show some greenish tinged feathers as you can see in the photo

They are growing fast and so small and downy looking. The first baby hatched June 29 so they are about two weeks old.

Marta

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Then There Were Two….Hummingbirds

Posted on June 30, 2011 by marta

Then there were TWO........the second egg hatched today.

I peeked into the nest today while Mama hummingbird was away and discovered that the second egg had hatched. Apparently when hummingbirds lay their eggs, the incubation starts once both eggs are in the nest and so they hatch at about the same time.