the birth of life at our doorstep
Late December, we had a pair of sunbirds building a lovely oval nest in our home to create their family. The nest is between the shoe rack and our front porch, where we move about. 'am not sure why they have chosen such a location.
Perhaps it's the cascading money plant that attracted them, or could be the soothing sound of splashing water from our mini fountain in the pond.
Nevertheless, it's at eye level where all the action are (talking about birds' privacy!).
We believe this might be female, with its bright yellow underbelly.
As you can see, they are really hard at work. They start in the morning at about 8 am till 1-2 pm and rest, before continuing from 4-6 pm. This repeats the next day, for about 2 weeks.
They had 1 egg and the chick hatched in about 1-2 weeks time. However my mama found it on one morning that it had fallen from its nest and laid motionless on the floor. Understandably, we were pretty sad that a life was gone like that, seeing how long the process took to come to this.
My mama said the night before the helper of our close neighbour touched the nest and the mother bird flew away due to the sudden surprise it received. We weren't sure whether she came back that night but the poor chick could have been in the cold, hungry and wanted its mother's warmth. It may have, in its attempt, tried to fly in search of its mother and fall to its death. My mama's theory is that it could also have died from shock.
For some time, the nest was left empty. I kept praying to God for the birds to return and that, we were sorry that we had let it happened. Then one day, we had a pleasant surprise. A bird started to come with sticks and flowers to this nest. She placed flowers at the bottom of the nest, red & pink ones. The sticks were used to create a little shade for them to have a little privacy.
And she had an egg. It was so tiny, we thought it weren't there. Then it hatched one day to a tiny chick, without feathers, its eyes are closed when it was born.
Today it has a cloak of black feathers, with some spots of yellow.
Look how shy it is! :D It blinked at me a few times before burying its head into the comforts of the nest.
Every night the mother bird comes to the nest to rest. Now she's not that afraid of us and at night we see her head sticking out, amongst the noise around her (my father blaring the TV, me fussing over the xiong brothers, my neighbour sometimes coming by for chit-chat with mama, and the xiong brothers running the previously-squeaking wheel)
We hope she and her baby will have a fantastic stay here, and that the little fellow grows up strong and healthy!
Meanwhile, our furry friends lay asleep after a long night running...
(<--- they look like bite-sized desserts ^-^)
Perhaps it's the cascading money plant that attracted them, or could be the soothing sound of splashing water from our mini fountain in the pond.
Nevertheless, it's at eye level where all the action are (talking about birds' privacy!).
We believe this might be female, with its bright yellow underbelly.
As you can see, they are really hard at work. They start in the morning at about 8 am till 1-2 pm and rest, before continuing from 4-6 pm. This repeats the next day, for about 2 weeks.
They had 1 egg and the chick hatched in about 1-2 weeks time. However my mama found it on one morning that it had fallen from its nest and laid motionless on the floor. Understandably, we were pretty sad that a life was gone like that, seeing how long the process took to come to this.
My mama said the night before the helper of our close neighbour touched the nest and the mother bird flew away due to the sudden surprise it received. We weren't sure whether she came back that night but the poor chick could have been in the cold, hungry and wanted its mother's warmth. It may have, in its attempt, tried to fly in search of its mother and fall to its death. My mama's theory is that it could also have died from shock.
For some time, the nest was left empty. I kept praying to God for the birds to return and that, we were sorry that we had let it happened. Then one day, we had a pleasant surprise. A bird started to come with sticks and flowers to this nest. She placed flowers at the bottom of the nest, red & pink ones. The sticks were used to create a little shade for them to have a little privacy.
And she had an egg. It was so tiny, we thought it weren't there. Then it hatched one day to a tiny chick, without feathers, its eyes are closed when it was born.
Today it has a cloak of black feathers, with some spots of yellow.
Look how shy it is! :D It blinked at me a few times before burying its head into the comforts of the nest.
Every night the mother bird comes to the nest to rest. Now she's not that afraid of us and at night we see her head sticking out, amongst the noise around her (my father blaring the TV, me fussing over the xiong brothers, my neighbour sometimes coming by for chit-chat with mama, and the xiong brothers running the previously-squeaking wheel)
We hope she and her baby will have a fantastic stay here, and that the little fellow grows up strong and healthy!
Meanwhile, our furry friends lay asleep after a long night running...
(<--- they look like bite-sized desserts ^-^)