Young Hummingbird

The other day we noticed this hummingbird lying on the deck near the sliding glass door. There is a hummingbird feeder nearby.

Right away along came another hummingbird that seemed to give it "heart to heart resusitation". At least that is how it looked to me. The one hummingbird seemed frantic that the one lying there get up and fly. It seemed to put it's chest against the immobile one and was applying some kind of rythmic pressure. Later I decided that that was probably the hummingbird's mother.

My husband set the hummingbird on the table outside - we were worried about various animals getting it. I got a box and lined it with a plain cloth. We set the hummingbird in there (with some sugar water) and I watched it from a distance. It sat like a statue for hours. Didn't move. It got late so I took it inside and put a screen over the box in case it decided to start flying around.

It never did. It died. Such a lovely bird.

Other people apparently have noticed that there seem to less hummingbirds around this summer. They aren't going through the sugar water like they normally do. But we've seem them around - some at the feeders and some feeding from the various flowers around.