I was just about to dead-head an oleander, here at the Bahamian winter location of the Sanctuary, when I noticed perched right in front of me a tiny hummingbird. I knew immediately that it had recently fledged, because the beak was very short, and the bird made no attempt to fly off, even though I was only 2 feet away. I quickly went to fetch my video camera from the house, and he (I will assume it was a boy) was still there when I returned and started to film. In less that a minute I heard the mother buzzing nearby, she passes briefly close then lands on the twig. The chick was chipping/squeaking as she approached, and only stopped when the mother moves closer and started to feed the chick. But the mother was clearly spooked by my presence and started to buzz me threateningly. I retreated, and then filmed the chick, still in the same spot, from a different angle. I then decided to see if I could find the nest, since clearly the chick had very recently fledged, and would still be very near the nest. Sure enough I soon spotted the nest in a large tropical almond tree - the same tree where I had filmed Thumbelina a year ago! And the second chick was still in the nest!
Here's a view of the nest:
and of the sibling fledgling from another viewpoint:
and a wider view of the nest:
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