Herman the Hummingbird

This is Herman and this is his story.

The baby hummingbird pictured here was brought to us from the Los Angeles Zoo. Yes, the zoo. After trimming the trees in the Rhinocerous enclosure, the gardeners noticed a nest on the ground with this little guy clinging on for dear life. The nest must of been knocked down or cut down on accident.

Female hummingbirds build cup-shaped nests out of downy materials, bound together with spider webs. There are usually 2 babies per nest, born mostly naked and completely dependent on their mother. The male and female parents do not form pairs as do other species, most likely because they are highly territorial.

Since this baby has down and some feathers coming in, it is considered a nestling. (The naked in the nest phase is called hatchling and the able to fly but not yet independent phase is called fledgling.)

Baby hummingbirds can NOT survive off of the sugar formaula you put out in your backyard feeder. They need a speical protein nectar formula. At this age (about 2.5 weeks old) , they are fed about 0.3-0.5cc of formula every 40 minutes from 6am to 9pm. It's a big commitment but that's the life of a wildlife rehabber.

So, you are probably wondering why I decided on Herman. Herman is actually the name of the oldest Rhino in North America that lived at the LA Zoo. He was 36 years old, weighed 4500 lbs and was one of the original animals brought to the zoo in 1966.


Click on this link to listen to another rehabber's story of raising baby hummingbirds.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4575898