Colin forever!
I have to warn you that this is not a happy ending story. Later in April, my girlfriend Maggie and I discovered a beautiful female hummingbird building a tiny, but strong nest in an ancient, hanging plant located in our home's patio. Amused by this nature spectacle, we decided to do our best to make that beautiful bird and her babies feel at home, although with no further intervention beyond placing a feeder and giving them some space and privacy. Alas, our efforts were in vain.
Colin is the name we gave to our Ruby-throated hummingbird because the Spanish word for hummingbird is "colibrí", so we decided to have a little fun with the language.
Excited by the amazing spectacle of a female hummingbird building a nest in a hanging pot in our patio, just between the laundry room and our home entrance, we bought a hummingbird feeder on Amazon and placed it on April 26th next to that pot...
But Colin continued to eat from the flowers around our home.
According to abcbirds.org, female hummingbirds spend up to seven days building their flexible, bowl-shaped nests. They start by creating a base layer of plant fibers and then incorporate spider silk by rolling it over the unfinished structure. The silk, which holds the nest together and anchors it to a foundation, is inserted into nooks and crevasses to ensure attachment. Construction requires several hours each day.
After days of hard work, this female hummingbird built this strong and comfy nest for her babies.
We thought Colin wouldn't lay her eggs because every time we walked by the nest, she flew away.
On April 29th, Colin laid the first of her two eggs. Two days later, on May 1st, we spotted two eggs in the nest, one slightly larger than the other.
The next two weeks, Colin incubated her eggs almost all day long, only leaving her nest for brief periods to search for food. Finally, two tiny chicks hatched safely and soundly on May 17th.
Here, you can see that the hanging pot with the nest Colin built in it is in the middle of our little front patio, between our home entrance, our laundry room, and the trash cans.
Trying not to bother the baby birds and their mother, I placed my camera on a tripod and shot from inside my home using the Canon app on my phone.
Colin used to feed her baby birds with bugs and nectar several times a day, usually in the morning. Every time she approached the nest, the chicks would wake up and open their beaks, waiting for some delicious bites.
We were witnesses to how well Colin took care of her babies every day. When we were in the kitchen making coffee or breakfast, she would return from her daily forage and inspect the area for threats before feeding them, to make sure they were safe.
On May 29th, we noticed that the three leaves that once covered the nest, keeping the babies out of sight of any potential predators, had died. This left the babies unprotected and easy to notice from above.
On June 1st, the day after my birthday and just 15 days after the hatching of the baby hummingbirds, the nest was empty. Although the chicks were growing so fast and well, they needed at least 10 more days to fledge, open their eyes, learn to fly, and leave the nest to start their independent lives. In this photograph, Maggie is looking at Colin, who is perched in the neighbor's tree waiting for us to leave so he can feed his babies.
We suppose that Colin was as shocked as we were.
This is one of the birds that used to fly around our home regularly even before Colin tried to nest in our patio. According to hummingbird-guide.com, hummingbirds are preyed upon by a variety of birds, including hawks, owls, crows, roadrunners, orioles, grackles, gulls, and herons.
The nest is in perfect condition, but empty. There is no sign of any disturbance or attack. We believe that after the leaves died, leaving the nest exposed, a predator may have spotted the nest and taken the chicks sometime between the night of May 31st and the morning of June 1st.
Colin appeared to feed her babies, but soon discovered that they were gone. She flew around the nest, perched on its edge, and after realizing what had happened, she left. We never saw her again. Good luck, Colin! We'll miss you forever.
