Rescuing a young hummingbird nestling

-

Yesterday I drove over to Florence River Park, a small nature park on the far east edge of Florence, CO. As I sat in my car for a few minutes I spotted a hummingbird 20-25 feet in front of my car. It hovered a few feet off the ground then went down to the ground which piqued my curiosity. When I got it in my binoculars I was stunned to see that it was on the ground feeding its baby. And, ye gads, it was in the parking lot where it was could be run over by a vehicle, grabbed by one of off leash dogs that are common here or even stepped on by someone as it was difficult to see. So I got out to move it, or get to move on it's own if it was able to fly, to a safer location. The pics above and just below show the young hummer on the ground in the parking lot.
It quickly became apparent this was a nestling that was not ready to fledge yet. I called Nancy Kelly at Second Chance Wildlife Rehab in Pueblo to ask her advice. She advised putting it back in the nest which was not possible as the tree limbs were 30 or so above the parking lot. She then suggested making a nest box and tying up in a tree--that wasn't feasible either. So she said I should put it in a box and bring it to her. The pic below is the nestling hummer in the box with some paper towels and the stick it had attached it's tiny toes to. Actually the stick was about a foot long but I certainly wasn't going to pry it's toes off and it small it broke easily so I just lifted the hummer with it's attached stick into the box.
The nice thing about baby hummers is they don't need very large transport boxes. The pic below is the box I put holes in then put it in my car for just under an hour drive to Pueblo. It chirped every few seconds for most of the trip which apparently was it's calling to be fed. I did get it to the rehab in Pueblo. Nancy confirmed it was a very young bird, maybe a week or so old.
The pic below shows the parking lot where I spotted the nestling hummer with the red ball at about the location it was located--a very precarious location for a tiny hummer on the ground. I am really glad I decided to go to this park in nearby Florence so I could get it out of harm's way and to a rehab where it is safe. Fyi, I didn't see the mother well enough to confirm the id but I believe she was a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. SeEtta
8-19-17: Follow up from Second Chance Wildlife Rehab, here is a short video of this nestling feeding vigorously:

Comments

Sharon said…
Makes me sad for the parent bird though. Wondering where her baby went.
June 12, 2018 at 4:38 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotted Sandpiper Chicks, 3 more days older

-
Image
Two days when I went to check on the Spotted Sandpiper family at Florence River Park I thought they had likely perished--there were two men engaged in gold panning right where the parent sandpiper had been and they had dug some of the sand from the bank where I last saw the sandpiper chicks. Arggh, I was afraid that all this activity, plus a large off leash dog with these people, would have scared the parent away and even if the chicks were successful in hiding in the vegetation they would not survive without a parent at their young age. What a surprise when I returned that evening for one last check to be accosted by the parent sandpiper calling loudly and challenging me by walking right towards me (and my dog). It took awhile for the parent to settle down and for one of the chicks to walk in some grass where I could spot it--the parent had moved the chicks about 150 from the river into an area with a lot of vegetation. I returned day before yesterday and refound the parent and
Read more

Recently fledged Common Raven

-
Image
At the end of March this year I spotted a Common Raven going into a crevice above a rock face of a local cliff area called Castle Rock (as part of it looks sort of like a castle). I started watching this area and observed a pair of Common Ravens spending time around this location. On March 27 I spotted one of the ravens inside the crevice which now had what looked like nesting material in it--the photograph of that is the second pic here. I continued off and on to check this apparent crevice nest. At the end of May I saw what appeared to be a nestling inside the crevice. I continued birding in the riparian forest across the Arkansas River from this cliff area. When I was about a quarter mile away I heard a lot of raven racket and walked to a spot where I could see the cliff area through my binoculars. I could see a lot of raven action with the parent birds calling loudly so I expected that the nestling may have fledged or they were trying to get it to fledge. I went back t
Read more

Band-tailed Pigeons, the mountain pigeons

-
Image
I spotted a small flock of about 9 or 10 of these Band-tailed Pigeons in a tiny unincorporated town called Greenwood which is south of Canon City about 20 miles (via winged flight). The homes in Greenwood are right up against the San Isabel National Forest and forests are the habitat for these mountain pigeons. The white collar on the nape of this species can be seen in the pic above.  The broad pale gray terminal band on a darker upper tail (and below the light undertail coverts) is best seen in pic below.  SeEtta
Read more