Hummingbirds

In this picture the hummingbird is drinking out of the feeder.

In this picture the hummingbird has its head up.

It is Bridget. I am going to tell everyone about hummingbirds. They are fascinating!!! I learned a lot more about them then I already knew when we were in Zion. At our campground we went to a ranger program about hummingbirds. Here are facts about them in bullet form:

- The only hummingbird that lives in the northeast is the ruby throated hummingbird.

- For a male hummingbird, to impress a female they will do things like climb 60ft up a tree and then dive down as fast as they can and then continue to do it until the female is interested. They will also do their best to hit the sun just at the correct angel so that their body will glow in beautiful colors. 

- Female hummingbirds love the males that have colors and feathers and other things to show off.

- When a female hummingbird is pregnant, it will only take 24 hours for the eggs to fertilize inside of her.

- Once the mother layes the eggs (she will only lay two at a time) it is depended on the weather of when the eggs will hatch.

- The eggs will only weigh a third of a dime and together will only be the size of a jellybean. 

- To build the nests for the hummingbirds to stay in, the mother will use upto 1500 feet of spider web to hold everything together. 

- The mother will make sure to use materials for her nest that are the same color as the setting of where her nest is.

- The width of the nest will only be built about two fingers wide. Hold out your two fingers and you will realize how small it is.

Now imagine a mother and two babies in that nest. (The male is not involved in anything except for the mating). The mom does all the work:) Sounds like humans doesn't it;) 

-The baby hummingbirds won't be born with their eyes and it will take about 10 days for them to have the ability to see.

- When the mother has another two babies, she will use the same nest but not the same part of it. She will build another nest right on top of the other one. As you can imagine, the old nest may not be very good and will be all droopy because the two hummingbirds (the, used to be, babies) will be in that nest for a long time and will stay there until they can't fit anymore.

- One hummingbird will be born first and that same one will leave the nest a week before the other one does.

-  The mother will continue to feed her babies for a while before she teaches them what and what not to eat. A female hummingbird has to feed her babies every 20mins. 

You might be wondering why the mom has to teach her babies what to eat because they get fed a lot. Well, the babies don't see what they are being fed because it is just shoved into their throats with their mothers beak. Painful right. 

Well, I think that is everything that I know about hummingbirds. I hope my papa is proud of me ( he is a bird expert). Enjoy the blog. I hope you found hummingbirds interesting and think more of them now. Bye!!!

 

P.S. Happy Birthday Uncle Dave!!! Love you!!!<3 tell everyone we said hi:))