(Because Julie….. they’re too darn beauty-ful! – promoted by Christian Avard)
I’ve told most of this story before over on ‘Kos, but I have a follow-up at the end with more photos
I will note once again that these photos are all smaller versions of the photos. Clicking on them gets you to my web site, which gives you details about the camera (all of these were taken with a Pentax K20d), the lens (a Sigma 50-500mm zoom lens, but some used a 1.4x teleconverter) and other settings (film speed, aperture, etc.).
These photos started on July 9th, with this photo of the mother hummingbird on her nest:
On July 29th, I went back to check the nest again:
Then, a week later, on August 4th, I found out that the babies had hatched, so I checked in again. I got these photos:
Notice how small the babies are. Tiny little beaks, rest of face and body not even visible. The next photos I have of them are only eight days later. We’ll get to those in a moment.
Fast forward to August 12th. I knew the babies would be bigger, but I didn’t realized they’d be this much bigger. These ones are nearly adult sized, in only eight days. Here are the babies by themselves:
Notice the spotted necks on these birds. That’s one of the markers of a juvenile. Full adult ruby-throated hummingbirds either have a bare neck (females) or bright red (males). Juveniles can have these spotted necks.
Here are two more photos, these of the momma feeding her baby:
On August 13th, I returned again to discover that one of the babies had fledged. That left the one lone hummingbird, still being fed by its mom:
I didn’t make it over on the 14th, but I did manage to swing by on the 15th.
I missed the last baby leaving the nest by about an hour.
But they were still hanging out. I managed to get these photos (and the one in the intro) of them feeding near the house. I think the first three are of the mother and the last is of one of the babies. It’s possible that I’m mistaking the mother for one of the babies, but I think that’s a full adult there.
So that’s it. A nest from laying to hatching to flying off into the distance.
I will close with a few more photos of a hummingbird from my own yard. I’m sure this is a ruby-throated hummingbird, but I’m still not used to seeing one with such a dark neck, so it throws me off a bit. This one popped up while I moving the lawn mower and just landed above me, so I grabbed what I could:
As usual, feel free to treat this as an open photography and/or birding thread and, most of all, enjoy the photos.
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Other relevant Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Links: