Hummingbird Nest

One of my hobbies is to photograph hummingbirds. Some of the hummers on this page were photographed around our home and others were photographed at the Desert Museum near Tucson.

Female Black-chinned Hummingbird in flight, photographed at home in Tucson

Female Black-chinned Hummingbird in flight — photographed at our home in Tucson.

Rufus Hummingbird — photographed at the Desert Museum.

Newest hummingbird nest just outside the living room window, June 2001

The newest nest, photographed June 2001, just outside our living room window. The mother is a Black-chinned — the same as the one at the top of this page.

Hummingbird nest showing egg fragments and two tiny baby hummingbirds

You can see the egg fragments, but what you probably can't see are the two baby hummingbirds in the bottom of the nest. The eggs are about the size of a navy bean.

Two baby hummingbirds about two weeks old, approximately one week from leaving the nest

Here you can see the two babies — the second is just behind the first, facing the same direction. The chicks are about two weeks old at this point, and about one week from leaving the nest.

The same hummingbird nest with a penny inside after the babies left, showing the tiny scale of the nest

The same nest with a penny in it after the babies left — the penny gives you an idea of just how small the nest really is.

Same nest, same penny. This year we had two nests with a total of four babies. Over the years we have had at least 12 nests, with an average of two babies per nest.

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