Nature

Watch as 2 Hummingbird Babies Hatch From Their Tiny Eggs

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Last year, the YouTube channel Bella Hummingbird uploaded a video of two tiny hummingbird babies emerging from their eggs as their mother, Bella, flew back and forth to the nest to give them their first meal. Bella catches “…gnats mid-air above the pool. She will then get nectar from flowers and mix them in her crop to make ‘buggy stew’ to feed to her babies,” the channel’s owner writers. And although the bug stew sounds less than appetizing, the clip is poignant and picturesque.

According to the channel’s description, Bella the hummingbird lays eggs in the video uploader’s ficus tree each year, so her admirer was able to set up a webcam to capture the special moments, like when Bella’s eggs hatch and the first time the babies fly!

On the Bella Hummingbird website, the writer explains that she lives in Southern California and that Bella is an Allen’s Hummingbird. She lays two eggs at a time, and it takes 15-18 days before they’re able to hatch. Afterwards, it’s another 23-28 days before they fledge. Usually, their nests are only about the size of half of a golfball! But the writer says Bella tends to make her nest slightly larger than that.

Watch other moments captured by the Bella Hummingbird channel here.