It shows a female hummingbird (Allen’s Hummingbird?) incubating her eggs, and the young at various stages of development after hatching.
It might take a little while for the pictures to load, so be patient. Also, be sure to scroll through all the pages.
One thing that struck me was the change in the young birds’ beaks. The shape immediately after hatching is nothing like the shape of the adult’s beak! A case of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny?
I have an Aunt that lives in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. At one time in the past, there were over twenty different hummingbirds that would nest near her house each season. One pair even wintered there! It was absolutely incredible to sit on her porch and watch these jeweled little flying icepicks jockey for position at the sugar-water tubes. There was a veritble cloud of these enchanting devils and it almost sounded like some sort of divine weedwhacker to hear the whirring of all their wings.
Speaking of Hummingbirds, I ran across this guy’s pictures (see them here) a few weeks ago. I guess he lives right in the middle of the migration path, and has like 8 of these feeders up and he has to fill them daily to keep the hummers satisfied. Pretty amazing, I get thrilled when I see only one at my feeders!
Ooh, I love hummingbirds! We had a rufous hanging around for a week or two this summer, which is unusual for this area. Maybe he was migrating early? Our hummingbirds get angry with us when we take down the feeders to change the nectar. I swear one day we will be attacked by those sharp beaks. It amazes me how feisty these little guys are with one another…I have three feeders up and they still fight with each other constantly.
Now that autumn is near, I feel sad knowing that our hummers will be heading south within a few weeks, and we won’t see them again till next spring. They will probably disappear around the same time as the lizards.
Those were great pictures, thanks for sharing! Boscibo’s, too.
We have a few I see occassionally in the summer which is always a neat experience. I put out a feeder last year, but it didn’t seem to do much for them. I’ll try again next year and place it in a different location with more attractive flowers around it.
We’ve just got the ruby-throats here on the East Coast. Sightings are few and far between, so it’s especially exciting when one does arrive. Your pics are wonderful. Has anyone tried Gatorade instead of homemade sugar solution? Supposed to work a treat, and not mold so quickly.