I love them! My yard is dedicated to feeding and giving birds a safe haven. I planted flowers that are known to be Hummingbird favorites, along with the usual nectar type feeders.
I was attacked..yes literally attacked by one as a child, so as pretty as they are to look at. I go running for the hills the moment one may get a little too close.
I've got black birds right now defending a chick that fell out of it's nest, it's on the ground, not flying yet, but hopping along when danger approaches. I put my cats in the garage in hopes they won't pounce it. But the parents quite literally hit the cats if they get too close. It was pretty funny to watch today, until I figured out that a baby chick was out of the nest. They have been dive bombing us as well for weeks now, but I've never been able to locate the nest.
Just curious, If you were to pick that baby bird up and place it back in the nest, would the parent's still care for it even if it is touched by human hands? Kind of crazy how birds are when they are willing to take on another specie much larger than them to protect their chicks.
I don't know, I've heard that they won't, but I really don't know if that is true or not. I don't know where the baby is (it was nearly feathered, so it's only a matter of a few days before it will be able to fly) hopped off to, and I have never been able to locate the nest. I have over 80 trees on my property so it's a daunting task. They have claimed the whole area as dive bomb zone, so I'm never sure when I'm close to the nest or not. =-/ I have some sort of psychotic nest builder, that always builds the most hideous nests somewhere on my roof, and then we get these horrible wind storms and blows these monstrosities off the roof. Last week after the wind storm, the nest was on the ground and we had a dead bald baby bird stuck to the windshield of one of our vehicles. =-/ It was gooey by the time it had baked on there for a few days before we noticed it. Then yesterday another egg had fallen from the roof and broken on the cement next to my cats outside hutch. It hasn't been a good year for the birds this year. =-(
OMG!! I'd be terrified to step foot on your property with those dive bombing birds lol. After that swallow attack last week I have had enough of aggressive birds. We have lots of nests on our property as well, thankfully no baby birds splattered on the windshield..yet..knock on wood.
I only asked about handling the baby bird because the nest I have is in the barn, we are tearing it down to replace it with a new one. The nest is on the bottom floor but my husband has already tore down the top half of it and wants to get started on the bottom part, but my concern is for those baby birds, I want him to wait it out until they are old enough to take off on their own, my husband says we will just relocate the nest in another building, but will the mama bird find it or be willing take care of them since they would be touched by human hands. I really wanna wait. I wonder how long it takes for them to be able to fly out of the nest.
LOL! The thing is too, the birds "Call" out and other birds of the same species come from the next house/farm/field over and they all attack together!! I have 3 couples defending what I can only assume is one nest! Crazy birds! I don't know about where you live, but in some states if there are baby birds in the nests, it's against the law to do anything with them until they all leave. I lived in Alaska, and we had birds that built nests out of mud. You could knock the nests down (we lived on a military base) with a high powered nozzle on a hose so long as the birds were trying to build the nests...that was okay to do, but if the birds succeeded (and they ususally did, because it was daylight 24/7 by that time and humans still have to sleep even if it's daylight outside) then by law you couldn't knock the nests down until all birds were gone from it at the end of the season. People hated having these birds build lines of mud nests against their houses because it made a whole nasty mess against the house and anything outside in the general area with bird poop. I would just tell your husband to leave that area alone until you know for sure that the babies are gone. Just to give nature a break, whether there is a law against it or not. =-)
Maybe, or perhaps it was the bright colors I ws wearing, I have heard of humming birds taking at people because they would mistake colorful patterns on people's clothes for flowers, now last week I was attacked yet again by another bird, it was a barn swallow, I went in my barn to do some chores and this swallow flew in the window and again I found myself being attacked by a bird, and it was flying at me like a fighter jet or something, scared the hell out of me, I ran out of there screaming..and perhaps crying as well lol. Well last Sunday my husband and daughter were working in there and they told me they found a swallows nest on a beam, I went in there and low and behold, there were about 5 baby chicks in that nest and it was directly under the place where the mama bird attacked me. I snapped some pics of them and then got the Hell out of dodge before the mama bird caught me in there again. There are the baby swallows I found..
I've had a humming bird fly up to me and peck me in the chest, I was wearing a black hoodie with an orange school symbol on the front of it. Once they determined it wasn't something to drink, it flew off. I always have nests in my chicken house rafters and my goats shed has a nest that looks similar to that one in the picture. My husband was out filling up the water trough that the chickens and goats share, and had these babies watching him from their nest that the bird stuffed into the rafter beam. He doesn't know where the parents had gone off to, but they are never aggressive, they just fly off when we come around to fill chicken food or water trough and then come back when we leave.
I guess hummingbird attacks are more common than I think, I know the one that was going at me chased me straight into the house, I was about 4 years old at the time, I was holding my cat at the when it came, the cat wanted me to put it down but I refused and my mother would yell "Would you stop mauling that cat!!" then the hummingbird came and I dropped the cat quick enough, back then I believed the hummingbird was attacking me to protect my cat from me, so for years afterwards I always called hummingbirds "mauling birds" since I believed that was their purpose(to protect cats from annoying children) and my mother never told me any different lol.
Perhaps you have the same kind of birds in there if it is the same sort of nest. I know we have many swallows who will come in and watch me when I tend to my goats, they just sit on the window sill and make chirping sounds at me, they are harmless, but it is the mamma one, I think she is out for blood and in order to get to the stables I have to walk directly under it so it makes me feel really ill at ease because I don't think she wants anyone anywhere near that nest.
LOL! Now that is a funny and cute story!! Yesterday we had to have our pump replaced in our well, I think the dive bombing birds eventually gave up exhausted from trying to defend against 3 men and a truck.
Sure do. We have a lot of different birds in our area, but I don't get to see many hummingbirds. I did see one last week, though. It was awesome. It hovered almost right in front of me.
I have some sort of psychotic nest builder, that always builds the most hideous nests somewhere on my roof, and then we get these horrible wind storms and blows these monstrosities off the roof. Last week after the wind storm, the nest was on the ground and we had a dead bald baby bird stuck to the windshield of one of our vehicles. =-/ It was gooey by the time it had baked on there for a few days before we noticed it.
Then yesterday another egg had fallen from the roof and broken on the cement next to my cats outside hutch. It hasn't been a good year for the birds this year. =-(
I only asked about handling the baby bird because the nest I have is in the barn, we are tearing it down to replace it with a new one. The nest is on the bottom floor but my husband has already tore down the top half of it and wants to get started on the bottom part, but my concern is for those baby birds, I want him to wait it out until they are old enough to take off on their own, my husband says we will just relocate the nest in another building, but will the mama bird find it or be willing take care of them since they would be touched by human hands. I really wanna wait. I wonder how long it takes for them to be able to fly out of the nest.
I don't know about where you live, but in some states if there are baby birds in the nests, it's against the law to do anything with them until they all leave. I lived in Alaska, and we had birds that built nests out of mud. You could knock the nests down (we lived on a military base) with a high powered nozzle on a hose so long as the birds were trying to build the nests...that was okay to do, but if the birds succeeded (and they ususally did, because it was daylight 24/7 by that time and humans still have to sleep even if it's daylight outside) then by law you couldn't knock the nests down until all birds were gone from it at the end of the season. People hated having these birds build lines of mud nests against their houses because it made a whole nasty mess against the house and anything outside in the general area with bird poop.
I would just tell your husband to leave that area alone until you know for sure that the babies are gone. Just to give nature a break, whether there is a law against it or not. =-)
My husband was out filling up the water trough that the chickens and goats share, and had these babies watching him from their nest that the bird stuffed into the rafter beam. He doesn't know where the parents had gone off to, but they are never aggressive, they just fly off when we come around to fill chicken food or water trough and then come back when we leave.
Perhaps you have the same kind of birds in there if it is the same sort of nest. I know we have many swallows who will come in and watch me when I tend to my goats, they just sit on the window sill and make chirping sounds at me, they are harmless, but it is the mamma one, I think she is out for blood and in order to get to the stables I have to walk directly under it so it makes me feel really ill at ease because I don't think she wants anyone anywhere near that nest.
Yesterday we had to have our pump replaced in our well, I think the dive bombing birds eventually gave up exhausted from trying to defend against 3 men and a truck.
I've photographed them too
(quite stunning when photographed!)