My Hummingbird Neighbors VI


April 20 2021, the first egg was discover in the nest :).

Time flies so fast, we moved in August 2008 and have been living in the same house for over twelve years now. After we moved in, I picked up a DVD from the local library about a hummingbird's story and learned that the hummingbird mother is always a single mother from the onset of pregnancy. Then I started planting some plants to attract hummingbirds. In spring of the 4th year we happily discovered a hummingbird mother had built a nest and raised her babies on a tree branch outside our window. I took so much footage, even caught one of the first flights of her babies. For the next couple of years I watched the hummingbird mothers successfully raising babies from spring to early summer, including the final training before the babies became independent.


April 22 2021, the second egg was laid in the nest.

For the next several years they weren't able to finish their motherhood experience unfortunately; one year the wind was too strong, blew the babies out of the nest. I watched and heard the hummingbird mother calling the babies like crazy and sadly after she was back, she tried to search all over the places nearby. I guessed that there was something to do with the neighbor's cat, they all have their own duties in nature...


April 26 2021, the hummingbird mother was brooding patiently on her eggs...

Another spring, I spotted the humming mother built her nest on our neighbor's Japanese maple tree. The tree branch her nest was on was a bit tall, and it reached into our backyard, I often watched her in and out busily raising her babies. Who would have known? One morning I heard our neighbor outside trimming that tree. It was Mother's day, Instantly I ran to the backyard, but it was too late. He even tried to dig the branches out his garbage bin, could not find the baby birds. He just tried to do something nice for his wife. And I watched the hummingbird mother sadly and loudly trying to call and find her babies nearby...


April 28 2021, didn't check on 27, where were the eggs?  Two hummingbird babies were born!  

And for the next two two springs, I saw the humming bird mother build her nest too low on the lower branches. though we saw the eggs and babies, and even put tin foil around the tree base and sprayed vinegar to discourage the neighborhood cat, these were all torn down before the babies had their chance to start flying.

Humming birds live usually three to five years, and we don't know whether these are all the same mothers, but different generations... After many years' watching the hummingbirds' heartbreaking motherhood experiences, I decided not to pay too much attention, let nature takes its own course. I have been quite busy with my painting, especially outdoors Plein Air painting. My plants have grown bushier and taller in our little yard, blooming as usual, and hummingbirds visit and enjoy the flowers all year round, which make's me happy.

After being locked down for over a year now because of COVID-19, I saw a humming bird outside our window again, and then spotted an unfinished nest being built on the tree branch. It made me so joyful, I started watching her again. Also, her nest is located on a branch that is easier to watch so took some footages to share here. She is off to a good start. Let's wish her all the best this year.

April 29 2021, two hummingbird babies impatiently wanting to be fed...


May 2 2021 the hummingbird mother feeding her babies...

Photos and videos are updated later below …

May 6 2021 The growing speed of hummingbird chicks is dramatic...


May 6 2021 Two hummingbird chicks are feeling crowded in their nest now...


May 8 2021 Lucky day, recorded the whole feeding time at noon...



May 8 2021 The hummingbird chicks are getting bigger and fatter during their sleep after feeding …

May 9 2021 The hummingbird chicks are sleeping after their mother's feeding …




May 13 2021 The above closeup photos were captured when the two hummingbird chicks were in their nest.  I opened our window and one opened its eyes might saw me or my smartphone.

May 15 2021, Saturday Morning I wanted to capture more photos by opening our window, I saw one of the hummingbird chicks jumped out their nest and fell onto the ground. Immediately, I grabbed one piece of tissue paper so as not to transfer any smell onto baby bird's body, and ran downstairs searching. The area I saw the baby bird jump down to was about one square meter.  I stood on one piece of paver looking for the baby bird, and made sure every inch my foot moved I was not stepping on anything.  Being a previous graphic designer and now a full-time artist, I do have more  picky and sensitive eyes than others.  I looked around in that tiny area searching inch by inch, but no baby bird nor little movement was detected.  I felt so guilty and nervous that I didn't want to be the one to kill the baby hummingbird, how much I love hummingbirds. Also I really wanted to find it and put it back in the nest before mother came to feed them, didn't want to see the baby rejected by the mother.  And I didn't want hummingbird chicks killed by neighbor's cats either.  I searched again and again, did not blink my eyes once for missing any invisible tiny movement or breathing from the baby bird.  At the same time, my heart started beating very fast, I hardly could breath normally... Finally, I found it actually it was just laying down on the ground at the area my eyes passed over a hundred times earlier.  The color and texture of the hummingbird feathers were the same as the dirt on the ground.  I used the tissue paper for picking her up so gently, and brought her back upstairs.  Luckily,  my husband was at home to help me, his longer arms were able to hold the tree branch close to our window, and we put her back in the nest.  But it seemed that the other chick was occupying the whole nest, so just left the bird on top of the other one.  We felt some relief when we saw the hummingbird mother come and she fed both babies.  Then both chicks slowly fit themselves back into the nest again.  I promised that I would never open our window till all the hummingbirds become independent.






May 16 2021 We were very happy to see both hummingbird chicks were sitting in their nest, and the hummingbird mother feeding them.  All three little videos are not super clear, as they were recorded through our double panel glasses window.



May 17 2021 Monday morning I saw these two chicks were getting crowed in their nest. The nest was originally built with about 5 degree angle. Now, two growing chicks moved and stretched inside the nest with their increasing weight had pitched the nest to about a 30 degree angle....

Usually I set 30 minutes alarm to meditate. I didn't know why, but I just couldn't focus. I gave up after 20 minutes. It was after 6 pm I believed, looked outside the window to find that the hummingbird nest and chicks had disappeared. I grabbed two pair of gloves, one for my husband. We went out and tried to find them immediately. So strange, we could not see anything left from the nest, not a single feather. The same time I was searching the bird, my husband started making a new nest. During the searching, I saw hummingbird mother was flying around, calling and searching for the chicks as well. After 20 minutes searching, I almost gave it up. But my heart forced me to continue, I found one baby bird laying on the ground. I had difficult time to see one during the bright day time. Of course it was much harder at dusk.


A glass baby food jar nest was instantly made by my husband, he hung it up on the bigger and stronger branches near the original nest area. Super gently we put the chick on the tissue papers into the new nest.



It was getting dark, we saw hummingbird mother passing by a couple of times, but didn't feed the baby. Google search result guided us, https://discoverwildcare.org/ We made a couple phone calls, Sarah returned our call and directed us to a hummingbird expert named Branda. We took her advice and left the baby in the new nest outside for the night...



May 18 2021 Tuesday early morning, my husband tried to catch the lost hummingbird chick...

May 18 2021. Jumped out of bed after 6 am, and the hummingbird baby was not in the new nest. We went out and found it and put it back to the new nest.  This time we watched the hummingbird mother feeding her, felt much relieved and happy to know she accept our artificial nest. But the edge of the new glass jar was too wide and slippery so the mother's feet couldn't grab on well …

I looked outside the window and found the hummingbird chick was not inside the new nest again before we had our breakfast. I went out again to search, couldn't find her. My heart started to sink down after I heard the bell of our neighbor's cat. Suddenly, my husband pointed on the tiny branch of the tree, and we could see the backlit silhouette of the baby hummingbird. Went back to watch the mother find and  feed her. Hope this hummingbird baby could hold onto the branch for a couple more days and grow until it could fly properly. We still had no idea where the nest went to...



May 18 2021 It was very windy in the afternoon, but the hummingbird baby still was hanging in there, hope it had learned it's lessons so far...


May 18 2021 The hummingbird mother keeps feeding the baby, still had no idea where the nest went and where the other hummingbird baby could be.  Hopefully in another tree somewhere.



May 22 2021, Saturday morning, we were so happy to spot a baby hummingbird being fed by its mother on top of our backyard neighbor's tree.  Only a couple of days ago, the hummingbird mother was calling her babies nearby there at dawn.  We worried if the chicks got lost again...
And the day before I saw a hummingbird chick was chasing its mother nearby.  Depends on my watching experience that this was part of the training hummingbird mothers provide to the chicks before they become independent. Of course I wasn't sure if they were the same siblings as our hummingbird neighbor, But one thing that for sure is hummingbirds are very territorial.



May 22 2021, it was great to watch one of the hummingbird babies almost ready to be independent.  Not sure we would able to recognize them in the future, but we can imagine that one of the hummingbirds will be the one we had watched to grow up whenever they come visiting their favorite plants I planted in our backyard. We still have no idea where the nest went.  I guess it is part of the mysteries of nature...



The previous hummingbird stories at:

My Hummingbird Neighbors I - An Abandoned Nest
My Hummingbird Neighbors II - Watching the babies grow
My Hummingbird Neighbors III - An Awarded Single Mother

My Hummingbird Neighbors IV - Welcome Back
My Hummingbird Neighbors IV - Welcome Back II

My Hummingbird Neighbors V


Please visit my online gallery for viewing more hummingbird's images and for limited prints:
http://pixels.com/profiles/xueling-zou.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=47522

Here is the link about how to help hummingbirds, 

San Francisco Bay Area CA San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Storytelling artist Xueling Zou who works in ♦️ watercolor & ♦️ oil mediums on ♦️ original art Plein Air paintings. Ship worldwide since 2010 @ https://about.me/xuelingzou@ about.me/xuelingzou or http://xueling-zou.pixels.com

Original Art Story

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