Um… I left the front door open when I let the dog out and a hummingbird flew in. It’s now frantically flying around my house.
I wish I was making this up!
I’ve left the front door wide open in the hopes that it will fly back out. It is frantically thwumping against the upper window. What do I do? I don’t want the poor thing to hurt itself and my ceiling in the entry is over 20 feet tall. I can’t even come close to trying to shoo it out unless I magically grow taller anytime soon.
Here is a link to a hummingbird site that may offer some helpful advice. Click on the “Trapped in garage” link.
The tips given may not help, since it’s in your house and not in a dark, windowless garage.
Unfortunately, “in an hour, a trapped and exhausted hummingbird can starve to death.”
The best tip I saw was to hang a hummingbird feeder near the door. The “note” at the bottom tells what to do if you have windows and can’t darken the room.
From the website:
Use one part ordinary white cane sugar to four parts water.
Maybe make some nectar and place it by the window for it to drink until he finds his way out? He can’t be exerting himself for very long.
I like the idea of hanging a feeder by the door.
***THANK YOU! *** I hung the hummingbird feeder near an open window. It didn’t seem too interested - the poor thing was scared out of its mind. It kept making these frantic tiny cheeping noises. When it found a resting place where I could reach I scooped it up gently and put it on the windowsill. It rested for a minute and then flew off.
I held a hummindbird. I didn’t want to, but the thought of it dying was even worse. I’m such a girl. I would come close enough to touch it and then chicken out. The little thing is probably flying around and telling its friends “… and then there was this giant thing, following me around and making these little “Ohmygosh” and “Oh no” and “Please don’t die” noises. Those people are nuts!”
I’ve never held a hummingbird, but over the years I’ve caught a number of little songbirds who were trapped in the basement, etc. and it’s amazing something so tiny and fragile can survive in the wild. You can feel their tiny little hearts beating so fast …
I’m so glad you were able to get your little bird out where he belonged!
I’m glad it’s out, too. I hope it didn’t get seriously hurt while bumping into the walls, ceiling, and window. I’ve never even been within more then 20 feet of one, and to get that close and hold it was amazing. It just sat quietly and didn’t flap about or anything, thank god. When it would sit and rest on the TV cabinet, I watched its impossibly small tongue flick out. That was cool.
I agree with Wile E, he’s probably fine. If he was able to fly away, then no wing bones were broken, which would be a death sentence for sure.
This incident got me to wondering- you know how, in cartoons, when someone bumps their head, they see little birdies flying around? I wonder what a bird sees when it bumps its head? I guess I could post this in GQ…
I managed to touch one once. At work, one apparently flew up to the girders at the top of the shop and got cobwebs wrapped around one of its wings. It was laid out motionless on the floor when I walked by. I grabbed the stringy cobweb and pulled it, but the bird just slid across the floor. Thinking it was dead, while still holding the web, I touched it with the other hand. It shot off leaving me with the web. I think I heard it say “Thank you” as he flew through the bay door. Yeah, I definitely heard that.
I had to remove a finch sized bird from the neighbors window awning that was hanging by fishing line. I used a hand towel to make sure the wings an such were held against it’s body. Then I had to cut the line without removing it’s legs. I have terrible motor control of my hands. It made me very nervous to do this and I would have been very upset had I damaged the leg the size of a pencil lead. Everything worked out and I hope I never have to do that again. This year I deeply cut my finger twice with my pruning shears. Little bird legs make me nervous.
I’ve found that the humming birds do rest on my wire fencing perched on the wire in one of the holes. They stop where there is nothing else to block the view and scope out the area, but a raptor will get a face full of wire fence.
I was in the stunning Alhambra palace in Grenada, Spain a couple of years ago, and found a sparrow-sized bird butting itself silly in one of the corridors there. So I had to take it in my cupped hands and weave between tourists with this little bird’s head poking out of my hands until I found some ancient balcony I could let it free from. I felt like a pasty Moorish magician, or something. Very sweet.
I am, too. There’s just something about hummingbirds that makes me feel good. It was so cute! I never knew that they cheeped. It must have been really distressed to make all of the noise that it did. It sounded like a baby bird in a nest, sort of small and high-pitched.
