Chances are you have never before seen a hummingbird nest, so I thought you might enjoy being able to see one through this photo.
The nest in this photo actually looks quite large to me, but looks can indeed be deceiving. A hummingbird nest is generally the size of a pea or half a walnut shell.
Most hummingbird nests are made of lichens, moss and fragments of bark, bound together with strands of spider web and lined with soft downy plant material like cottonwood fluff.
One reply on “Broad-tailed Hummingbird at Nest”
Zoe, the nests of BCHU and RTHU hummers here in Chickasha are made almost entirely out of the fluff of Cottonwood trees, which is bound together with spider silk. Both species seem to use the same materials in our area and both will place lichen on the outside of the nest. The female will alternate on her material trips . . . bringing Cottonwood fluff one trip and then spider silk on the next material trip. These material trips are usually made about every couple of minutes . . . sometimes over a couple of hours before she will rest for awhile. Depending on how hurriedly she is working on the nest, a nest may be completed in three or four days or if she seems to have more time it may take a week to build the nest . . . not sure what determines the speed of construction!