Hummingbirds

I am doing a post on the hummingbirds we have in our yard and I guess I should have started with the photo of the nest with the 2 tiny little eggs in it which is photo number 4. The second picture is of a new hatchling before it has any feathers or has it's eye's open. These are not the best photos as I didn't want to bother these little babies to much or their mama. 1st pic is of the 2 babies as they were starting to get their feathers and their eyes were open here. In this pic I think they are a sleep. The 3rd pic is of a different nest in my neighbors yards that had only one chick in it. We did find 2 other nest but they were not used. The nest were about the 2 inches across when first built but seemed to stretch a bit as the chicks grew. They were made out of bits and pieces of plants including a few tiny bits of wood. The female would sort of glue them together with spider webs. I would watch her gather the spider web off of the outside of my windows with her long bill. I used to wash the spider webs off of the windows ever week or so since we seem to have an over load of granddaddy longlegs spiders but while they were building nests I left the spider webs up. My neighbor had painted an old table green that sits on her back porch and now the paint is starting to peel off, and we noticed bits of green flakes off of the table in the nests.

 I have used feeders with out the perch on them and some with and the birds seem to prefer the feeders with the perch so they can rest while feeding. I noticed the youngsters really prefer them. Also the feeders with the perch are easier to clean as they have a wider opening for reaching inside to make sure you get all of any mold that might start forming in the feeder. I use the smallest feeders I can buy and change the food almost daily. Other wise in the warm or hot weather of summer mold can form quickly. If you don't keep the mold out the hummers can get sick and die. I only have about 6 or 7 birds most summers but my sister over in Arizona has had as many as 30 this summer. My sister in Oregon can get that many coming into her feeders, too. I don't buy the mix for my birds. I don't think the red food coloring would be good for them, plus you don't need it to get the birds to the feeder. Most feeders have part of the feeder in red. I make the sweet sugar water. I use one cup of water to one forth cup of white sugar. I make several cups of it at once. My pan wholes 6 cups of water which means I use 1 and a half cups of sugar. Bring the mix to a boil and let cool. That will last my birds about 4 days since I change out the feeders daily even if there is sweet water left in them.

 Water drops in these feeders, not mold.

Here in Rio Rancho we have mostly Black Chinned Hummingbirds with a rust colored Rufus Hummer once in a while. It is the Black Chinned ones that nest here.

I get all kinds of other birds coming into the feeders for the sweet water. Like orioles, English sparrows, mockingbirds, and once in a while this woodpecker.

Baby Birds

Yesterday the baby birds were all flying and flycatchers were chasing the old cat Murphy that follows us to the hay shed when we feed the horses. Murphy always comes back to the house with us when we are through. He didn't know what to think of those birds attaching him. I think one even grabbed some fur. The certainly weren't afraid of him. In the afternoon I watched the parent flycatchers teaching the chicks to catch bugs 'on the fly' they were using the low power line right behind our house as their launch site. They all got highly upset when a roadrunner came into the yard for a drink of water. The flycatchers would dive bomb the roadrunner and it even looked once as if a flycatcher actually hit the roadrunner on the back. Poor roadrunner was never able to get a drink. Finally it went and hid in the neighbors wild sunflower patch. I figure it went on to the next neighbors who has chickens with water out. The flycatchers stayed here so maybe it was able to get a drink there. I had the camera and got a couple of so-so shots of the roadrunner but was unable to get one of the flycatchers dive bombing it. Would have made a great video.
The baby hummer is learning to use the feeder and helps its mom chase off the other hummers.

Nesting Bird Photos

Don't know what happened on the previous post. Didn't get the photos to post. So here they are. First is the dove on her nest. Then the male flycatcher, followed by the female flycatcher on her nest. Next is the hummer on their nest, you can see the tiny birds tail stuck up and last is the male sparrow that agrues with the flycatchers over territory around the hay shed.

Nesting Birds

I am thrilled to have so many birds nesting in mine and my neighbors yards this summer. My neighbor has a dove nesting in a purple leaf plum tree in her yard. In my yard we have a pair of flycatchers nesting in the cottonwood by the hay shed, and a pair of sparrows in a corner of the hay shed that makes it impossible to see the nest. The other day I discovered a pair of hummingbirds were nesting in the Bradford pear tree that is right outside my front door. I put out lots of water for the birds but don't put out any food for them. I am afraid of making them to dependent on me for food and bringing in other species of birds that I really don't want. But when I found the hummers nesting I went and bought two hummingbird feeders and hung them up since I couldn't figure out where the little birds were getting any food as there are only a few wildflowers blooming in my area at this time. I don't think there is enough to support these two little birds. So far I haven't seen them feeding from the feeders but hope they find them soon as they will need them when they start feeding chicks. Here are some photos of the birds.