I had returned to a spot in Las Vegas, Navada near the Sunrise Mountains and spotted an old friend zipping along and perching on top of trees near me while i was having morning coffee.
My friend was a Female Black Chinned Hummingbird. It was great to see as well as being able to get some photos of her with my Cannon and 400zoom lens. I would check on her from time to time during the day and she would be perched or buzzing around the same area every time. Great as it is hard to get pictures of these tiny birds, let alone get them to pose. The picture here she looks tall but she is only about 3 inches long.
MARCH 9, 2018
I took a closer look at were she kept going into the tree and discovered, she was a proud Mom of two chicks.
She was not laying on the nest keeping them warm with her body. they had gotten to a size where she could only sit on the side. the white you see on the nest is spider web silk she has collected. Black Chinned Humming Birds build their nest about 6 feet from the ground.
The eggs laid (2 as a rule) will be about the size of a coffee bean. Before the two nestlings are ready to leave the nest at around 16 days, they will be each larger than their mother!
When newly built, the nest is a compact, deep cup constructed of plant down, spider silk and cocoon fibers. As the nestlings grow, the nest stretches into a wider, shallower cup. Nests from cooler areas are thicker-walled than nests from warmer areas.
MARCH 11, 2018
The young are about 10 days old and have formed some wing feathers and tail feathers. you can see the beek of the second hatchling on the right of the picture. They are starting to loose their down around the head.
The young lay low in the nest and when they feel the air from the mother's wing they pop up for their feeding. when she leaves they duck back into the nest to keep warm.
If you get a chance to see a feeding, it looks like she is going right down to their toes with her pointed beek.
MARCH 13, 2018
It is facinating how fast they develope in such a short time. You can see the down on the head is gone and fine feathers have develope. Here Mom regurgitates the insects and necter combination for her young
MARCH 16, 2018
The young leave the nest after watching the grow for 8 days. Mom will push them out and hang with thwm while their first flight. She will not allow them to return. Mom may return for her next brood, as she may hay up to 4 clutchs a year.
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