A Hummingbird's Nest at BPL - North Branch, Tragic Ending

On March 10th, two weeks after I first spotted a tiny hummingbird building a nest, she had laid her first tiny egg and then the second one on the next day. She sat on her eggs for the next two weeks, and at the end of March they hatched. I documented this special event by videotaping and taking pictures like a proud grandparent expecting her first grandchildren.



Here's the mother bird sitting on her eggs. She seemed to look at me and proudly posed for her portrait.



The baby birds are growing well and fast every week.



At the beginning mother bird usually leaves her babies for about one minute or two, and then comes back and sits on them again.



Whenever she left, I would take a peek into the nest to check on the babies and take their pictures.



Here they are beginning to fill up the small, cozy nest. They change their sleeping positions often and their breathing is fast and strong.



Stretched out and fast asleep. They slept all day like human babies, and woke up when they felt the nest vibrating. Then they would open their orange beaks so that their mother could feed them.



As the baby birds were growing bigger, the mother would leave the nest for longer period than before - sometimes for half an hour or more to get food to feed the two hungry, fast-growing mouths. At first I was very worried because I thought something might happen to her or that she had abandoned her babies, and I was relieved to find her back sitting on the nest when my shift was over.



On Saturday of April 5, they were still alive and well when the library closed at 6pm, but on the following Monday when I came in to check on this little, precious family, I was shocked to find that there was nothing left of the nest on the branch.



I frantically looked under the bushes and found two dead baby birds and there was just little left of the tiny nest. The mother bird never came back. It was a sad morning and I really missed the hummingbird and her babies. Everybody at work was wondering what had happened to them. Who or what could have brought the destruction to this little family? Every now and then when I look at their pictures, they still bring a big smile on my face and pangs of sadness at how short their lives were.







Tara R., my boss, wrote:

Monday, April 07, 2008 2:37 PM

Baby Birds Go To The Rainbow Bridge

Over the last several weeks we at North Branch have been blessed with viewing the birthing of baby hummingbirds outside our back door. We would go outside and look at the Mama bird proudly sitting on her eggs and we even saw the babies after they hatched. Nga Trinh lovingly documented these events.

This morning we arrived to find the birds were victims of an animal attack and regrettably passed away. The lives of these little birds will not be forgotten nor did they die in vain. These creatures put smiles on our faces, gave us something to look forward to, allowed us to have a common connection with each other, and reminded us how big the world really is. Nature is uncontrollable and we should be humbled to walk in its surroundings.

Please take the time to approach your animal companions or any animals you may come across today and say, “thank you, friend.”

Tara (Manager-Librarian at North Branch)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Bridge_%28pets%29

Epilogue

A day after the babies died, I came to work and saw a disturbance on the tree in front of the library. The branch shook violently and a bird flew up. A squirrel was messing up the nest with his front paws and then ran up to the bigger branch to eat something. Could this same squirrel be the one that destroyed the hummingbird's nest and killed its babies?



Here is the nest of another bird that the squirrel roughed up real badly.

I looked down to find a small part of the nest and some eggshells on the ground. Do squirrels eat bird eggs or they are just territorial creatures?

A Hummingbird's Nest at BPL - North Branch, March 2008

You know that Spring is here when the sun is shining, the weather is warm (60-70 degree Fahrenheit), the sky is deep blue and clear- sometimes with fluffy white clouds, and birds' songs fill the empty, cool and quiet morning space.



This is the back of the building of Berkeley Public Library - North Branch. And at this very back door steps that I usually take my noon lunch break. In early March of this year, I noticed a pretty little humming bird, who came quite often and was hovering around the lowest branch of the tree, and I thought that she came to drink nectar from the flowers. But then one afternoon, she had a tiny fuzzy white thing in her beak, and that she was putting it down on a branch. I came closer to investigate and saw her teeny-tiny, green nest. It was about one and a half inches across. I got very excited about my discovery and showed everyone at work this remarkable bird and her beautiful nest.





The nest is well camouflaged and from afar it is very hard to see.





The nest wrapped around a small branch about the thickness of your pinky-finger. The bird also used a dried leaf and secured it tightly to the branch like a foundation for her nest. She must had been building the nest for about two weeks or more.





She's still not quite finished covering the whole nest with this white, fluffy "cotton" here.



I regularly checked on the nest - before work, during my break and after work. On March 10th, the humming bird laid her first tiny white egg. It looks like and about the size of a jelly bean candy. The mother bird is about three to four inches long from the tip of her beak to the tip of her tail. The inside of the nest is now all covered with the fluffy "cotton" to cushion and keep her egg warm. The weight of the egg makes the nest sink deeper than before.



The next day, she laid her second egg. This one at first looked smaller than the first.



A few days later they were both about the same size and the shells were less transparent and thin.



The eggs looked pretty cozy and safe inside the tiny nest.



The mother bird usually flies away for about one minute, but I don't know how often she leaves her nest. This is a perfect opportunity for me to take pictures of her eggs. I can tell when she is coming back when I hear the sharp "chip! chip!" sound that she makes, and I of course get out of her way.



She changes her position from left to right, and front to back from time to time. I think she is also turning the eggs by wiggling, shaking and quivering her body before she settles down very still throughout her sitting.



On March twelve's night and early morning of the next day it rained pretty hard. I thought of the little humming bird and her eggs, and felt sorry for her sitting in the rain all night and morning. When I came to work that morning, I checked on the bird and there she was patiently sitting on her eggs.
Here as you can see the branches and her nest are all wet. And at the end of the leaf below her nest still has a drop of water in it. Poor baby!

I will continue to watch, take pictures and video taping of the humming bird and her eggs. Stay tuned!