Tiny Visitors

[TAWhatley]

Two baby hummingbirds waiting to be picked up by my permitted rehabber friend: http://www.rims.net/BabyHummers.jpg

Terry

[Maggie-NC]

Oh Terry, they are so cute and tiny. I would pay the rehabber to take them! They would scare me silly.

[Reti]

How do you hold and feed something so tiny
I would be afraid to touch them.
They are very cute though, thanks for sharing the pics.

Reti

[Lovebirds]

Amazing..........where would you find two tiny little cuties like that? Hope they'll be ok. What darlings. I'm with Maggie.......that would scare me to death. I'd be afraid I'd squeeze them just with my finger tips.......

[Charis]

Terry,
They are absolutely precious.

[Trees Gray]

Originally Posted by Reti

How do you hold and feed something so tiny
I would be afraid to touch them.

Hi Terry,


That is exactly what I was thinking....also how do you cuddle them when they are so tiny?
I guess you DON"T!

WOW!

Thanks for sharing the Teenie tiny wee itty bitty ones!

[TAWhatley]

A young boy found them while out walking around his neighborhood and took them home. His teenaged sister had the good sense to go back to where he found them and tried to find the nest .. no luck there.

I just about had a COW when she brought them to me. I didn't know what I was getting .. just two more baby birds, so when I took a look, it was lucky that I didn't faint. I don't think I have ever had anything so tiny. The little ones scared the you know what out of me.

I honestly had to stop myself from panicking and THINK about how to feed them .. truly, you can't believe how little they are and how tiny those little beaks are. Finally, it came to me to load a syringe with the "nectar, and insert those little beaks into the end of the syringe. I was very thankful that the babies would and could "suck" up the food that way. I used a three/tenths of a cc diabetic syringe for this, and we're talking putting their beaks in the "output" end. Just incredibly little ones. And .. they gape to be fed .. just a very tiny spot to aim for and too tiny for me to handle. Thus the syringe method saved them and me also. I put a little one in the palm of my hand, gently guided the tiny beak into the syringe, and waited while it swallowed. I could see the "crop" getting full with only a drop or two of food.

I was very thankful when my rehabber friend came to collect them, a swallow, and a badly broken crow. She transported the little hummers to the hummingbird rehabber who is in her 80's and has been doing only hummingbirds for decades.

I had them from about 7 PM last night until around 2 PM this afternoon. Though they were precious, I was very relieved to send them on their way to someone far more qualified than me to take care of them.

Terry

[maryjane]

Wow, I actually had to get a dime out of the change jar to see how tiny they really are, and even then it's hard to believe! I can't imagine how scary it must be to be responsible for something so very eensy. I read somewhere about a lady who rehabs hummingbirds, and how she has to be careful not to let them imprint on her since it said they can't be released if they imprint, and they can't be kept as "pets" since their nervous systems can't handle the stress of being in a household (they have heart attacks easily?) Don't know if that's true or not. She also said they had to be fed something like every twenty minutes, around the clock. Talk about a full-time job. Great job as usual, Terry! I hope they and the other rescues make it, that poor crow doesn't sound so good. Good luck.

[TAWhatley]

Hey MJ and All .. they were the size of a pinto bean, a single peanut, or a bumblebee sans wings .. just incredibly tiny but yet had little wings, little beaks, the littlest legs and feet you ever saw, and I think one of them had the eyes open .. now those eyes were much, much smaller than the head of a straight pin .. I am SOOOOO glad I am not a full time hummingbird Mom

Terry

[Maggie-NC]

It is hard to comprehend a living bird being the size of a pinto bean and having to feed it. God bless that lady who has cared for them so many years.

Terry, that was great thinking on your part. You kept them alive until they could get to someone used to caring for them.

[Margarret]

You sure have had the challanges come your way in the past couple of months! Thanks for the picture of them. I had never seen baby hummers before. I thought that was a penny, then Jon pointed out it was a dime next to them! You did a great job with them!!

Margarret

[flitsnowzoom]

My goodness, what tiny little lives. WOW. Most people wouldn't have even seen them or might have mistaken them for bugs and "Squash" without even thinking.

Maybe you'd better start training to be a hummer's helper. There can't be too many years left for that wonderful 80's lady.

I've seen pictures in magazines of nests and eggs, not babies. Can you believe it, Mom does all the work taking care of nest and babies.

Hummingbirds are very hardy but fragile at the same time. At one time, they tried to ship them to Europe to sell, but they'd die on the trip because they need more than just nectar to survive (Among other things, I think people had NO idea of how to care for them).

Hummers return here well before the flowers begin to bloom (they summer up in the mountains). Someone told me they can actually drink sap from trees.

[naturegirl]

I just had 2 baby American Tree sparrows about the same size and you know what they are so delicate and scary to touch of fears of hurting them. I fed mine with a tiny paint brush as a eye dropper probably would have drown them. It worked too. Unfortunately they both passed from internal injuries but I did keep them alive for about 10 days.

Cindy

[TAWhatley]

Thanks for the reminder about using a tiny paint brush, Cindy. That probably would have worked on the little hummers also. I'll have to remember to get some little paint brushes and put them in the baby bird medicine chest.

Terry

[Trees Gray]

Terry,

I am glad you have a hummer rehabber in your area, I would be nervous with such teeny ones around. I guess it is best to have specialty rehabbers for such tiny teeny birds, who need teeny tiny equipment for feeding.

Sorry to hear the tree sparrows didn't make it, Cindy, I'm sure that was tough after 10 days.