# Tiny Visitors



## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

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

Terry


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

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


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

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


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

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.......


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## Charis (Feb 11, 2007)

Terry,
They are absolutely precious.


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

Reti said:


> *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!


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

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


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## maryjane (Jul 15, 2006)

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.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

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


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## Maggie-NC (Jun 22, 2005)

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.


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## Margarret (May 3, 2007)

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


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## flitsnowzoom (Mar 20, 2007)

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.


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## naturegirl (Nov 7, 2005)

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


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

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


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

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.


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

Hi Terry, all...


When I had mine, I made a 'tube' from the plastic insulation of one strand of fine Telephone wire, fitted to a small taper of red rubber fine size catheter...took out the Copper inside form the phone wire strand, and just used a short length of the insulation...and flame rounded the end a tiny bit, then reamed the inside end so as not to lose any diameter there at the tip.

I had to strain the Formula through cloth for it to pass through such a fine tube...and I fitted the tube to a small syringe with a safety collar so I could only expell a certain pre-determined amount so I would not flood them, which I had calculated to be about 2/3rds to 3/4rs of a Crop Full at that time.

They hated the formula I was recommended to make, and soon would not eat at all if I presented it, so I made a new formula based on my own by guess and by golly, and they loved it.

This was Sardines, Grenadine, Chlorophyll-Greens powder, some Cherry or other Syrup, Water, Sugar, and I forget what else, Fish Protean Flakes...dried Pea flour/powder.

Had lost one early on with the bad formula some experts insisted I use, but soon the other one thrived and was vigorous.


They can aspirate very easily...and they can get yeast or fungal infections very easily.

They are Insectivores...who happen also to have Nectar in their diet.

Without Chlorphyll and tiny plant eating Insect intestines and tiny Insect exoskeletans and muscles ( or elect parts of Fish and elect small Fruit extracts) they will be in trouble and fast...or not thrive anyway.

As far as I was able to learn, in Nature, their Mother ( or sometimes Father also) feed them ONLY by inserting their own Beak all the way into the Baby's Crop, and then regurgitating the food or liquids directly into the Baby's Crop. They never put the food into the Gape as Song Birds do.

Later, when the Babys are older, the parents may place very small insects just into the Baby's Gape...but not when 'tiny'...and when dispensinf liquids to the older Baby, I would expect the parents do so directly into the Baby's Crop and not into the gape.

The surviveing one soon got the drill nicely and would 'gape' merely to the arrival of the Food and 'tube' and we got the drill down well...but they can not stand long, so one must be fast, and ready...and insert the tube into their Crop when they Gape, without bottoming out or being short...and to dispense the formula pronto before their little legs tire, and the amount is one tiny 'drop' the size at most, of say a smaller size Milo Seed or Millet Seed really when very new...

...and they tire in about three seconds or so, and this when fairly 'vigorous'.

If wilty, it is much more tentative or brief for them to stand and Gape...and they do not tend to gape unless they also stand...so..once weak, there is a vicious circle to confront.

Feeding them, or him...every ten to fifteen minutes, sixteen hours a day, for two weeks or so, ( till I lost him from I think Meal Worm bacteria cause the experts I was talkiing with got angry at me for useing sardines and insisted I use Meal worms instead )...kinda wore me out after a while.


A friend of mine made a little video of me feeding him...and he put it on "youtube"...if I can find it I will post a link.

This shows a vigorous Baby, who at rest sat more or less poised like any other Baby Bird, upright and sleeping with the occasional fidgeting any Baby will do.


Some times I was less co-ordinated than others...looks like this occasion I was just so-so, but most of the time it was elegant and no wasted moves or wangleyness or making the Baby work for it like he is doing here...the Babys make it very easy really...the hard part is having it together at that moment to do the deed with alacrity and the right depth into the Crop.

They can stretch out their tiny Necks to an amazing length when Gapeing...and you can see this here in the little Video. I think he was about nine days old when this little Video was made and had grown quite a bit.

These when I got them were smaller than the ones in your image there by the dime.

I do not think their Eye lids develop a seperable slit to open till they are ten or twelve days old. They are more or less an 'Embryo'...who happens to be post natal.


I sure would like to spend time with your re-habber friend who does the Hummers...wow, God Bless her..!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfjT4mKJzc4


Love, 

Phil
Las Vegas


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## pdpbison (Mar 15, 2005)

...if memory serve, as he grew I went to a larger 'tube' which we see in the video.


Anyway, found a video showing how Momma does it...

Baby is a true 'Sword Swallower'..!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygn15cVgIPQ&mode=related&search=


Phil
Las Vegas


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

That's a very clever feeding device, Phil! You had good aim and a steady hand to boot!

I can't comment on the diet as I have no real experience or knowledge of raising little hummingbirds. The rehabber said to make sugar water at 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, so that's what I did.

At any rate, I'm still relieved to have kept them going for the little time that I had them. The rehabber told me they are doing well today.

Terry


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

When I had to take the baby Grackel I found over to our experienced rehabber, Nancy, she used an artist's paint brush to feed the various gaping babies she had.

I thought that was just the greatest idea since the wheel and was totally impressed how well that little brush did the job...and fast too!

Nancy said she buys them on sale whenever she can. 

SO hard to imagine feeding such *tiny* ones like Hummers. My hat is off to those who do and can!

Some years ago, at work, my co-workers and I were fortunate to watch a Hummer raise her babies outside our office window. Certainly was an experience and one I have never forgotten!

I am SO glad those babies were able to go to the Hummer rehabber, Terry! MY thanks for seeing to their welfare beforehand!

Shi


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## naturegirl (Nov 7, 2005)

It was tough but I was so nervous feeding them and changing their washclothes all the time that I got to the point that I was wishing they would grow really fast so they could be returned to the wild. Precious little guys they were but now in a much better place if you ask me. 

Cindy


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