Failed Hummingbird Nest in Las Vegas NV – a sad story

                A female Costa’s hummingbird was queen of the north side feeder all winter. I took pictures of her in fair weather and foul. I was sure to see her sitting at the feeder or on the top of a dead branch next to the feeder.

                I identified her as a Costa’s based on two observations. One, there are only two wintering species here in Las Vegas NV, so she could only be a Costa’s or an Anna’s. Two, the Anna’s female has a tear drop of color on her throat; the Costa’s female does not. The north side queen did not have the tear drop and she was smaller than the Anna’s.

                Come warmer weather I didn’t see her anymore. I hoped that meant she had gone to the desert or headed up towards Utah, where some Costa’s summer.

                Then last Saturday my neighbor told me he had a hummingbird’s nest in his bottle brush bush that is between our two houses, on the north side of my place. I was excited since I have not had the privilege of watching a nesting hummingbird. Then he added: there were two eggs, but they were cracked.

Nest with broken eggs

                Right then I knew this was a failed nest. A female doesn’t ordinarily lay eggs and then desert the nest.  Either she is driven from her nest for some reason, or she dies. Suddenly the fact I hadn’t seen my Costa’s female lately became very disturbing. In all probability she is dead.

                I went out to see the nest and then asked permission to photograph it. From its location and construction I feel confident that it was her nest.

                Costa’s like to build their nests in open, sparsely leaved shrubs. They normally put the nest anywhere from two feet to eight feet above the ground. This one is at about five feet.

Nest securely tucked where limbs have been pruned off.

                The nest is constructed of plant fibers, spider webs, bits of leaves or flowers, and down. It is grayish in color.

                The nest fits all those descriptors.

Carefully constructed hummingbird nest

                So what happened to the mother? I don’t know. There simply hasn’t been any bad weather for her to contend with and she made it through the earlier bad weather just fine. Predators are always a possibility. This doesn’t have to be neighborhood cats. I have watched a Great Tailed Grackle peck an adult hummingbird to death, much to my horror. Disease is another possibility. This winter I watched my Mockingbirds get sick and disappear and a friend reported finding a dead hummingbird a few blocks from my house. From the description, it was an adult male.

                I was sad the whole rest of the day. My first hummingbird nest turned out not to be a source of joy, but one of sorrow. I have to keep reminding myself that failure and death is part of life, and just as important to the ultimate survival of the species, including humans, as success and birth, even here in the make-believe world of Las Vegas NV.