When doing yard work, take a closer look at your shrubs and trees before doing any trimming — there may be tiny hummingbird nests tucked away in the branches.
We all love hummingbirds for their unique design and their fascinating beauty. Despite your adoration of these beautiful birds, you might be less familiar with how they nest and what you can do to protect their homes from being destroyed.
Unfortunately, there are lots of folks out in the world who don’t fully appreciate all that natural splendor. There are still far too many people who would rather topple a rare tree for wood than let it live and reproduce.
Fortunately, those folks are balanced out by the many open-hearted citizens of the world who want to protect Mother Earth!
And luckily, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is here to help. The agency took to Facebook to issue an important warning about hummingbird nests.
The message quickly made a huge impact on the web, with tons of Facebook users sharing their words with friends and family.
As their main priority is to protect the ecology of our country, USFWS released an announcement to all nature lovers.
“Hummingbird eggs are tiny, about the size of jelly beans! Please remember to carefully check for nests before you trim trees and shrubs this spring.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service went up online with a spectacular photo of a hummingbird nest in the wild.
The image, attributed to a photographer named Kelly Campbell, is a delicate portrait of an almost impossibly tiny bird’s nest caught in the branches of an evergreen.
It’s a fairy tale image for these pixie-like birds, which are typically less than one-tenth of an ounce in weight. It’s an important warning for nature lovers and homeowners alike.
Hummingbirds live all over the Americas. These versatile creatures can be found as far south as Chile and as far north as Alaska during the summer months. They make their homes wherever the conditions are right. They especially love gardens because they make for comfortable habitats.
A hummingbird will often choose to set up a household in a well-maintained human garden. If you have bright, nectar-rich flowers, and have hummingbird feeders and birdbaths in your garden, these tiny birds may just move in.
Of course, if hummingbirds decide to start a life in your garden, they may also decide to start a family.
Female hummingbirds build small, delicate nests out of spider webs, moss, and leaves. They like to build on down-sloping branches over running water when possible, but will build in all sorts of environments.
They then decorate the nests with bits of lichen to help disguise and camouflage the nest. This is an effective strategy for keeping their eggs safe from predators, though it might increase their risk of garden-maintenance calamity.
Those tiny beauties are harmless to humans and bring birdwatchers endless joy. It is all of our responsibility to protect the lovely life in our local ecosystem!
So when you go to trim your greenery this spring, make sure you take a close look at your garden, shrubs and trees before you begin pruning or weed-whacking the area. You might have to let a branch or two slide, but you could be saving dozens of little lives if you just take a moment to look a little closer.
Sources: AWM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Facebook
