Forgive me if I don’t post anything serious today; it’s nice to distract myself with a bit of natural history and noms. Reader Jim called my attention to this live hummingbird cam, which is on YouTube. I didn’t know you could put animal cams on YouTube (this one shows a prerecorded clip when it’s dark), but apparently you can. So, if you wish, put this in the corner of your screen and watch mom come and go all day.
From the CBC News:
Vancouver Island resident Eric Pittman has become somewhat of a hummingbird expert ever since he picked up a video camera five years ago and starting filming a nest in his backyard.
He has been filming ever since.
“Once you start to do it and they’re always around, it’s kind of addictive,” he said.
This one is a Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus; this one’s named “Flower”) in Alaska. It’s her second nest of the season. I’m not sure whether there are eggs or not, but watch closely, because these things hatch, grow up, and fledge quickly!
The range of the Rufous Hummingbird, from the Cornell Lab Website:
I’ve always loved the Rufus ones. I wish we had them in Ontario. I remember seeing them near Capilano one year in big groups.
Now someone needs to figure out how to set up a humming-moth cam!
Amazing
She just took off.
Not sure about the map accuracy.
Rufus hummingbirds live year-round in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been putting out nectar all winter, and they’ve been around all winter for several years.
Range maps should be taken as generalizations, especially in the West (the “northeastern bias” still exists in American natural history, though the gap is closing, especially with the advent of digital cameras and online posting of information).
Hummingbird feeders (and much more important, gardens with hummingbird flowers, insect-friendly plants, and plenty of cover for nesting) can attract hummers into new areas. That has been demonstrated several times in southern Arizona and is true in my own yard, which has gone from three hummingbird species in 2000 (two summer, one winter) to seven in 2013 (two year-round, two summer, three migrants).
The rufous hummingbird is one of our fall visitors and we usually have one or two in the yard for several days before they move on.
I thought this would be where a camera was mounted on a hummingbird. Well, probably some day…. Still very cool, though.
My wife points out that the Audubon Society has just launched a hummingbird center. Go to http://www.hummingbirdsathome.org/ and click Learn More.
If you’re in Arizona and want to get your fill of hummingbirds, there’re two standout places.
One is the Red Rock State Park at the south end of Sedona. They’ve got a few feeders on the patio of the visitor’s center, and the walls they’re hanging in front of are one-way glass. Also, the birds are pretty fearless; you can park yourself a few feet away from the feeders, remain still, and the birds will still come and feed.
The other is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, on the west wide of Tucson, which has a walk-in hummingbird aviary. Those birds like to perch on hats and fingers.
b&
Awww it would be so cute to have a hummingbird perch on my finger. I’ve fed chickadees out of my hand as they sat on the palm of my hand but something as tint as a hummingbird bird would be fantastic.
A friend actually had that exact experience. A fledgling in her garden got exhausted and was sitting on the ground as my friend was watering the veggies. When my friend held her finger in front of the bird, it hopped on. My friend then held the bird up to some blossoms, and the bird drank greedily while sitting on her finger. After a bit, the bird flew away, never to be seen again…unless, of course, it’s since matured beyond recognition. Birds grow up fast, as we saw in that cat and duck post….
Cheers,
b&
The Rufus is a year-round species on the eastern shores of Vancouver Island. Our summer home just beside Saanich Inlet, 25 miles north of Victoria, is blessed by these little dynamos all year, and they demand a lot of fuel. Great watching!
Awww, she’s so beautiful. She breathes really fast.
According to the YouTube page, this cam is actually in Victoria, B.C. We only /wish/ the trees were budding in Anchorage already!
My friends in Victoria post pictures of flowers to FaceBook and talk about the nice smelling flowers. Grrrrrr!
I can’t believe it.
I clicked onto the link at 10:14 pm EDST to see the mother bird feeding her brood. It lasted about a minute and then she flew off.
Mostly I see nothing when I click on these live cams.
Looks like it was about 4:14am your time.
Reblogged this on Mark Solock Blog.
The chicks are growing up. Mom is starting to have a hard time covering them up now.