The Hummingbirds Are Back!

We have two kinds of hummingbirds here on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. The Anna's hummingbird stays for the winter but the rufous hummer winters in Mexico and returns mid-March to April. I rarely see the Anna's but we've had some busy little rufous hummingbirds buzzing around here for weeks now.

Rufous hummingbirds seem to be particularly territorial and will often do their best to keep other hummers from using "their" feeder. You can hear the angry buzz of the male rufous's wings (but interestingly, you don't really hear the female's wings), and if he's particularly upset with you he'll tell you off with a "chee chee chee chee" sound. The males are also experts at dive-bombing when they're really ticked off...they fly very high then hurtle downwards, of course topping it off with a "chee chee chee chee!"

The wild red-flowering currant bushes bloom in April and the hummingbirds really love the nectar, so I've been practising getting some shots of the birds around the pink flowers.

Rufous Hummingbird and Red-Flowering Currant Bush

Hummingbird Sitting with Pink Flowers

If you click on either of the pictures or links above you'll be taken to my Zazzle shop, Fun Nature Photography, where you can customize that particular photograph and have it printed on dozens of different products. But I thought I'd show you another hummingbird photo that I took where it's already printed on a product, in this case, a mousepad.

 Hummingbird Mousepad

This colorful hummingbird photo is also available on many other products in my online shop.

I've been looking around for a rufous hummingbird nest but haven't had any luck so far. They're very small and hard to spot but I keep trying!

hummingbirds art
rufous hummingbirds art

Rare Bird Sighting ~ Costa's Hummingbird

The Costa's Hummingbird is a rare sight on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia...in fact, in 40 years of record-keeping it has never been seen before. But a lone male Costa's has made an appearance in Gibsons, B.C. in none other than the former mayor's yard. Barry Janyk has played host to this gorgeous hummingbird since mid-July.

What's the big deal, you might ask? Well, this particular hummingbird breeds in California's Sonora desert and Arizona's Mojave desert. So he's a long way from home and he's decided to spend time in a coastal rainforest. Strange. Another male Costa's hummingbird has also been spotted in a Vancouver neighbourhood. At first it was believed that these two birds were one and the same however it has since been confirmed that they are two different Costa's.

Barry Janyk graciously allowed me to spend some time on his back deck photographing this tiny (3.5" long) hummer. Although small, this particular hummingbird was incredibly feisty, constantly chasing away a female Anna's hummingbird who was competing for nectar at the same feeder. He kept a fairly constant vigil so the Anna's only got in a few sips of sweet nectar.

The hummingbird had a couple of favourite perches. Here he is on just one of them.

Costa's Hummingbird

It was a rare treat to be able to see this incredible hummingbird with the violet gorget and crown. I hope more of these beauties make their way to the Sunshine Coast!

hummingbird art

Baby Hummingbirds

I recently had the amazing experience of being able to see two baby hummingbirds grow up. A customer of mine kindly let me know about a rufous hummingbird nest and I jumped at the chance to see it. One day she took me there, and I managed to get one shot of the mother hummingbird sitting on the nest.

Mother Hummingbird on Nest

The babies had already been born and I believe this was the last day the mother sat on the nest. (By the way, the beautiful nest is made out of lichen and moss, and lined with feathers and sometimes bullrush fluff. Often hummingbirds bind the nest with spider web, which is strong but flexible.)

The baby hummingbirds were tiny featherless creatures that reminded me of little lizards. When you looked at the nest from the side, all you could see was two beaks sticking up. (That's how hummingbirds sleep, by the way, with their beaks straight up in the air.)

Here are the baby hummingbirds a few days later.

Baby Hummingbirds in Nest

I noticed that one of the babies looked a lot smaller than the other so I did a little research. Apparently hummingbirds almost always lay two eggs, and usually the eggs are two days apart. However that doesn't explain the size difference between the two babies because hummingbird eggs usually hatch on the same day.

Knowing that it takes about three weeks for hummingbirds to leave the nest, I visited a couple of more times. Here's a shot of the two hummers when they were starting to get too big for their nest.

Baby Rufous Hummingbirds in the Nest

I returned a few days later to find that one of the hummingbirds had already left the nest. He was flying around, making peeping sounds at his mother who was also nearby.

I found the other baby hummingbird sitting on the edge of the nest.

Baby Hummingbird Sitting on Nest

The nest was in the middle of the woods but right on a trail. I had to walk past the nest to photograph the hummingbirds because the tree branches were in the way on the other side. The tiny bird calmly watched me as I passed and just seemed to be sitting there thinking things over while I photographed her. (I don't know why I think of her as a "she" but I do.)

Here's another shot of the hummingbird telling me that she'd had enough of the picture-taking...

Baby Hummingbird Sticking Out Tongue

She stuck her tongue out a few times...I'm not sure why hummingbirds do this, but they do it fairly often.

When I walked past the nest to leave I heard the unmistakable buzz of a hummingbird in flight. The baby hummingbird had left the nest! She flew to one of the cedar tree branches, was fed by her mother, then flew a little further.

I stayed for a few more minutes, watching the happy family. What an incredible feeling to be able to witness this. I'll always remember it.

Hummingbirds in Our Back Yard

The rufous hummingbirds returned from Mexico back in late March and are constant visitors to the three feeders around our house although I notice that I haven't been seeing them quite as much now that lots of flowers are blooming.

A little while ago I bought some bleeding hearts after learning that it's one of the flowers they enjoy. I set the plant close to their favourite feeder and was rewarded almost instantly when a hummingbird flew right for it.  

Hummingbird and Bleeding Hearts Flowers

By the way, I took this picture and the next one with my new external flash. I photograph hummingbirds using natural light if it's bright enough and with a flash if it's a little dimmer, although you can use a flash anytime...they're good for filling in shadows in bright sunlight when shooting outdoors.

One of the hummingbirds likes to sit atop a dried-out plant stalk and survey his domain and show off his beautiful gorget (neck feathers), not bothered that I'm standing very close by.

Rufous Hummingbird Sitting

 About a month ago I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and something caught my eye as I walked into the living room...it was a hummingbird sitting on the clothesline that runs along our back deck a few feet from the window. His beak was straight up in the air and I watched him, fascinated. I suspected that he was asleep.

Sleeping Hummingbird

He stayed like this for about half an hour. I later researched this odd behaviour and discovered that hummingbirds sleep with their neck pulled in and their beaks straight up in the air. Sometimes they even fall asleep and hang upside down...I found a couple of amusing videos on YouTube with hummingbirds hanging upside down from feeders.

I started to get a little worried about the sleeping hummingbird though because he began to twitch quite a lot. I half expected him to fall off the clothesline at any moment. A couple of chickadees came and went from the nearby bird feeder and the hummingbird still didn't awaken. However, finally a Steller's jay showed up and in the blink of an eye, the hummingbird zoomed off to some nearby bushes. I'm assuming he was o.k.!

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Attract Hummingbirds with Flowers

I've just completed my second Squidoo lens about attracting hummingbirds, and this article is specifically about how to attract hummingbirds with flowers.

The Rufous hummingbirds are buzzing around our place full-time now, the males battling it out over who has the rights to the feeders in the front and back yard as well as general territory. From what I can tell, we have at least two males and one female now.

Today I gathered some dried grass and moss that I thought they might want to use for nest-building. My next goal is to finally find a hummingbird nest with babies!

Here's a male rufous hummingbird showing off his beautiful red gorget (his neck feathers that almost look like sequins).

Male Rufous Hummingbird

How to Attract Hummingbirds

Hummingbird at Feeder in Costa Rica

O.K., you might not need to know how to attract hummingbirds to feeders if you happen to live somewhere like Costa Rica, where the above photo was taken, and where you see a hummingbird about every five minutes. But for the rest of us, if we're lucky enough to have hummingbirds around, getting them to stick around isn't always so easy.

That's why I wrote a Squidoo lens (my first!) on how to attract hummingbirds. Please pop on over to have a look and leave a comment if you care to!

Rufous Hummingbird at the End of His Limb