We got a special valentine this year. On Friday, February 14, a female Costa’s Hummingbird began building a nest on the Mexican fish mobile that hangs outside our living room window under our back deck. This is a celebrity hummingbird spot, having hosted six hummer nests over the past four years. Four were built by a Broad-billed Hummingbird, and two by the Valentine Costa’s.
This year’s Costa’s completed her nest and incubated her two eggs which hatched in early March. We watched mom feed the babies for nine days, but then sometime on the tenth day, Friday, March 21, mom quit coming to the nest. We know that hummingbird moms make quick feeding trips, sometimes so fast you can easily miss seeing the mom come and go, but we began to worry. Baby hummingbirds need to be fed every half hour during the day, and I had glued my eyes to the nest for 45 minutes without seeing mom. It was time to call Southern Arizona Hummingbird Rescue.
The volunteer I spoke with gave me her address, just past Swan on Skyline, some 45 minutes away. I took down the mobile and put it in a five-gallon bucket with the nest and its two tiny occupants, and sped off toward the rescuer’s house, wishing I had an ambulance’s siren. Life expectancy for an abandoned hummingbird baby fades very quickly and I wasn’t sure when these chicks last fed, but I knew it was significantly more than a half hour. The first hatched bird seemed twice the size of the other, and was far more active, its tiny bill wide open while it thrust its head upward over and over, but the second bird was almost immobile. The volunteer met me in her driveway and quickly removed the nest from the mobile, putting it into a warm container and then giving the birds a long-awaited protein slurry through a pipette. The good news I later learned was that the active baby survived.
We never saw the mom again, but it’s a certainty that she died somehow since mother hummingbirds are known for their tenacity in feeding their young. You should know the following in case you encounter a similar situation: (1.) If you suspect baby hummingbirds have been abandoned, watch the nest continuously for one hour. (2.) If there is a live baby in the nest and no bird has come to feed the babies for an hour, call Southern Arizona Hummingbird Rescue at (520) 404-9949. Currently, this is the only place in Tucson certified by the Arizona Game and Fish Department to take in and treat injured or abandoned hummingbird babies, and you will have to take the nest and babies to the volunteer on call. Note that these volunteers feed the babies a special formula every 30 minutes from sunrise to sunset, and this responsibility rotates among licensed volunteers. (3.) If you find a helpless bird outside its nest, don’t assume it’s abandoned. Mother birds often feed fledged or displaced babies and will do so once you move away from the bird. If the bird is helpless, and is not safe from predators, and you have access to its nest, you can place it back in the nest. And as a more cheerful epilogue, this morning a Broad-billed Hummingbird began building our mobile’s seventh nest.
If you have questions or comments about SaddleBrooke’s birds, or to receive emailed information about bird walks led by Bob and Prudy, call (520) 330-0366 or email bobandpru@gmail.com. Previously published articles can be found online at birdingthebrookeandbeyond.com.
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