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Hummingbird Wind Chime Nest
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Hummingbirds delight FeederWatch participants year-round. In Tucson, Arizona, one FeederWatch participant has enjoyed the rare privilege of watching hummingbirds nest and fledge young right outside their window. And amazingly these little birds chose to nest on a hummingbird wind chime!
Marjorie Simons received the wind chime from her grandchildren and hung it outside a porch window. Several years passed, and the chime grew worn and dusty. |
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Then on April 10, 2005, she noticed a female Broad-billed Hummingbird investigating the chimes. Marjorie wrote, "Soon a few spider webs and some mesquite leaves clung to one of the pewter hummingbirds." |
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Broad-billed Hummingbird incubating eggs (above) and feeding nestlings (left).
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Broad-billed Hummingbird nestling (right). |
| By April 17, the nest was completed and the hummingbird was incubating eggs. To protect the nest from visitors to the Simons home, Marjorie put up yellow police tape and warning signs.
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By May 29, two hummingbirds fledged from the tiny nest. Almost immediately the female hummingbird, or perhaps a different one, was back investigating the nest and was incubating again by June 10. A month later two more hummingbirds fledged the nest. |
| Broad-billed Hummingbird perched on a hanging plant just after leaving the nest. |
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A female Broad-billed appeared at the nest again the next spring, on April 26, and was sitting on the nest by May 1. The yellow tape was installed again to protect the nest. In early June two more young fledged. Then, amazingly, on June 8 an Anna's Hummingbird visited the nest. By June 10, she was sitting on eggs. Although one of her fledglings did not survive a record heat wave in July, one young Anna's Hummingbird successfully fledged this very busy nest.
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Anna's Hummingbird incubating eggs on the nest previously used by Broad-billed Hummingbirds. |
| At the end of the FeederWatch season each spring, Marjorie looks forward to the arrival of hummingbirds to see which species will nest on her hummingbird windchime. |
Photos by Marjorie Simons. |
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