Day 17: Getting There

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird chicks are now beginning to look like their mother. The feathers are filling in quickly and there is certainly a difference in size and appearance since yesterday. See the tails in the photo below. I presume, based upon a slight size difference, that the older one is the one on the right.

The chicks are still eerily silent. The only time I know that the mother is around is when I hear her fast high-pitched twittering, but that is only when she zips through the canopy, over my head. It is normally about 5 minutes after that, that I see her begin her approach to the nest. Her approach is slow, deliberate, calculated, and in a downward motion, briefly pausing every foot or so and checking out that things are safe as she descends to the nest. It is always from the same direction and she lands on the nest almost always in the same spot.