Monday, February 29, 2016

Antsy

The elder hummingbird nestling is getting restless, buzzing those wings:

Hello world!

A flurry of feathers

Flapping one's wings at 50 beats per second is tiring work

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Friday, February 26, 2016

Siblings

With much patience I finally got a photo of these two both peeking out:


Note how the lower one has somewhat sparser feathers and a shorter beak with a more prominent gape. It is probably a day or so younger than its sibling.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Flight feathers

The baby hummingbirds have suddenly become very antsy, starting to squirm and flutter their tiny quilly wings:



Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Hummingbaby

More pictures from the tiny nest-- they grow up so fast:
Feb 22, tiny tongue sticking out

Feb 23, peekaboo!

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Beaks 2

More day-by-day photos of the baby hummingbirds and their caring mother:

Feb. 19
Feb. 20

Feb. 20, a tiny beak

Feb. 21. Note the feather quills sprouting on the babies' chins!


Thursday, February 18, 2016

Beaks

For the past week I have been seeing the mother hummingbird perched on the edge of her nest-- making poking motions as if feeding young:
Then a couple of days ago I caught a glimpse of tiny baby beaks-- and just now, I managed to photograph them!




Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Splashy

My family has a sort of water park for birds in our backyard, and this morning it's had a few visitors:
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Shake those feathers!

Rinse and repeat


Orange-crowned Warbler wants a bath too!


Friday, February 5, 2016

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Starlings

These birds have some odd relevances to my academic life. First, their presence in America has been attributed to an obsessive Shakespeare fan, though the Shakespeare connection may be nothing but a legend. Second, they may be capable of recognizing recursion in sound sequences, an ability generally considered unique to humans and essential to language.