Wednesday, August 15, 2012

I held a Hummingbird



On Monday, my boy and I heard a thud at our bay window. The boy looked out and told me a hummingbird was on the patio floor.  I looked, and the bird looked dead. It was laying there belly up with it's wings splayed out. So, after a few minutes, the boy went out there to look at the bird. He told me it was moving. I think he meant it was breathing. I went out and picked up the hummingbird. I set it in the palm of my hand and it sat up. I could definitely tell it was stunned. It just sat there and I pet it a few times and told the bird he would be ok.

Turns out it is a juvenile male. No damage to his beak from hitting the window or his wings from the fall. He sat on my hand for about 3 minutes. I asked my boy to run into the house to grab my phone so I could take these pictures.

The top picture is of the juvenile resting on a hook after he flew off, he rested there for a few minutes too.  When he first flew away, he flew back to the window, then to my head, then my shoulder. He landed on this hook.

The second and third pictures are of him just resting in my hand.

This was a once in a life time experience. The only thing that came close to this was when we visited Madera Canyon in Arizona and the hummingbirds were accustomed to humans and flew very closely to us.  Before today I had never held a hummingbird. I am thankful this beautiful creature survived the window crash.