Saturday, March 13, 2010

Bird sex

It’s starting up… the male quails are doing their aggressive chest-bumping (which they must have learned from watching the NBA), cardinals seem to be paired off, all kinds of birds are flying around with nesting materials in their beaks.
At Tohono Chul Park, in a little gazebo in an undisclosed location, I photographed this lovely little mother hummingbird. I think she is a Costa’s but am not certain. Since I took the photo the eggs have hatched, and if I’m lucky I may get a picture of the babies.Beautiful hummer mama 2-17-2010 8-35-24 AM 3616x2712
Interesting bonus fact about hummingbird nests: they are elasticized with spider silk, which allows the nest to expand as the hatchlings grow.

2 comments:

  1. That is an interesting tidbit. We've got a couple Carolina wrens nesting in a gourd hanging on the back porch. And some impressive hawk shrieks on the wind on Saturday. Spring is in the air!

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  2. Great shot. My nests were empty. This shows how compact they really are. And it isn't often a hummer is quietly sitting in one.

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