The babies seem to be doing well, despite prolonged absences of their mother and my worrying. Perhaps this is not all that unusual for hummingbirds. I certainly don't have any experience being the doting grandmother (thanks, Darryll!) of hummingbirds. These baby birds do seem to be very similar in behavior to newborn humans - eat, sleep, poop....but they don't cry when they need attention, at least not yet.
Chrissy and Caribbean (thanks to Ben and Annie for the baby names) are getting fuzzier day by day, also bigger. Esmerelda doesn't spend any extra time on the nest anymore. She rams the food down their throats (no exaggeration), and then she's off. I have some terrific video I took of her feeding the babies, but I've had no luck uploading it to Blogger, even after spending 1-1/2 hours trying! And anyway, the video was shot vertically rather than horizontally, so you would have had to look at it sideways.
Esmerelda resting on the Pride of Barbadoes in between feedings. The sunlight really show off her beautiful colors.
The babies should be ready to start testing their wings one day this week. I'll be ready with the camera.
Just testing to see if I can finally post comments. Caught up on your blogs this morning--sounds like life has been exciting with your critters. I'm going to start calling you "Elly May."
ReplyDeleteMay send an e-mail later on to let you know what's been going on in St. Louis.