Twin Baby Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds frequent our flowers but this was the first time I had seen a nest in our yard. The mother bird chose a branch in our orange tree about 6 1/2 feet off the ground. 

The nest was in deep shade. One of the rules of wildlife photography is to avoid disturbing nesting birds, so I didn't use a flash, I used a lens that admits a lot of light. I only approached the nest after the mother bird had left for a while, and only stayed for about two minutes at a time.

As you can see, the nest was mainly made of spiderwebs. It was really small, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches across. I've heard them compared to half a walnut shell, but it was bigger than that. It was so small I was amazed that two babies could still fit into it as they grew up.

The tree hangs over the edge of our concrete patio and the nest could easily be knocked down. I put a sign up on the eaves of our house to alert the gardeners.

These are Allen's Hummingbirds. They have green shimmering feathers on their backs and heads, but not the bright throat coloring like some other species.

The two babies grew and grew and then disappeared about two days apart.

These images are available from our Pixels gallery by clicking here.