Near Famous

Violet-crowned Hummingbird Female Building Nest

Following mating male hummingbirds have nothing to do with raising the young. Females alone must select the nest location, built the nest, lay the eggs, incubate them, feed and protect the young until they are able to take care of themselves. Nests are made of plant material held together with spider silk. In this video clip the female first brings a piece of lichen to add to the nest and then applies spider silk to the outside of the nest with her beak. The nest is being built in a cluster of dried agave seed pods. The video clip was taken at the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory's Banning Creek Field Station (SABO) located in the Mule Mountains near Bisbee, Arizona. The video will start playing automatically after a brief download.

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