Posted on by susurrus

Hummingbird Nest

Hummingbird nest

My sweetheart once found this felted hummingbird nest on the ground. It was about as long as my thumb, but a little broader, and the opening was tiny – about the size of an English penny.

The nest looked extremely cosy, like a tiny rucksack, though it’s hard to imagine any bird could fit inside it. Sadly, the slender supporting branch had broken off, perhaps in a storm. There was no sign of a bird and no way to tell how long it had been there. We hung the twig in an acer to take a picture.

As Laurie is looking out for hummingbird pictures to share, I wanted to reciprocate, so I dug this out of my files. I’ve never managed to take a picture of a hummingbird. I have sometimes seen them, to my delight, when I’ve been in the Southern United States, but am usually too stunned to even reach for a camera.

There is something miraculous about hummingbirds – the way they hover around a flower seems more like a bee than a bird.

I once witnessed one in a battle over a flower with a Monarch butterfly, shattering some of my bucolic illusions of both creatures. Neither was willing to give up the prospect of nectar. That gave some perspective for an article I found online: How to deal with an angry hummingbird.

Chance would be a fine thing! I wish we had them in England. They would need overcoats, but it looks like they could weave them, if they set their minds to it.

34 Replies to “Hummingbird Nest”

  1. Love the idea of a hummingbird wearing an overcoat – puffer jacket maybe – in the UK! 🙂

    1. They’d need little shopping baskets too, unless they could glean anything from buttercups. Second thoughts, they might find more than I think – the lilac, perhaps, or the wisteria.

  2. That nest is a wonder. How good that it was found by someone who could admire it. It is difficult to imagine anything flying in and out of that tiny door, but then it’s difficult to imagine a hummingbird — it oughtn’t be possible to move like that!

    1. I’m pretty sure my imagination would not be up to inventing a hummingbird. But I can imagine it would have been a different shape had any chicks hatched out. Surely in putting their little heads out, they would have stretched it?

      1. But what a great image! And I do think your imagination is quite capable of a hummingbird had it not already been invented.

  3. It never occurred to me that there are no hummingbirds in England! Given their tiny size I’m afraid even a down vest would be too heavy! We have them here in Texas, and I’ve hung a feeder, but I haven’t seen any recently–just one earlier in the spring. They migrate, so I’m hoping they just haven’t reached us yet. They are wonderful to watch.

    1. I could hardly believe it was a bird’s nest. It looked like something a dormouse might make or a very big spider.

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