Anna's Hummingbirds

I discovered this fascinating book yesterday, and will be reading it.

Terry Maeser, the author, has been rescuing injured Anna's hummingbirds since 2005.

She rehabilitates the birds and releases them back into the wild areas around the Los Angeles area.

This brings me to the latest update regarding the empty Anna's hummingbird nest in the fig tree in the garden. I always looked to see if any another hummingbirds decided to take up residence in the nest after the two babies fledged.

The nest remained empty.

And then a couple of days ago after work I saw that the nest was gone from the branch.

I was just stunned! How could that nest be just ripped off from the branch?

It couldn't have been a person, because only two of us knew about the nest, and it really wasn't very visible to a casual observer because the nest was high up and blended well with the tree branch.

But there it is, a naked branch!

You can still see some of the plant fibers and spider webbing used in the nest construction to weave the nest onto the branch.

I looked on the ground in the area under the branch.

And there is a small clump from the nest.

You can see in the image below the size of the piece of nest compared to the blades of grass and flower petals.

Nothing else from the nest is to be found.

This part of the fig tree branch is too thin to support the weight of a squirrel.

Would it have been a slightly larger bird....

This will remain a mystery.