Bye bye baby, bye bye...
She'd stop chirping after I fed her.
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As much as I wanted to keep her, last night I gave the little baby hummingbird up to a wildlife rehabilitator whose home is an official hummingbird sanctuary. According to the woman at the sanctuary, my baby hummingbird was an Allen's Hummingbird about a week shy of learning how to fly.
At best the little bird could fly about a foot high and about 3 feet away. Sometimes she would cling to my fingers and just flutter her soft wings very rapidly - it tickled so much!
I'm confident that the little bird is going to do well and thrive. She was healthy and uninjured, and now she's in the hands of a professional. The wildlife rehabilitator had up to 60 hummingbirds in her care. Walking in her front door, you just see cages and cages of hummingbirds. I stood next to one of the little cages while a hummingbird hovered. I paused to listen to the hummmmmmmm of it's wings.
This is actually the second hummingbird I've found. The first one was in a dazed torpor when I found it last year on the sidewalk. I knew that it was a male because of it's bright, iridescent colorings. The male gender of birds are usually more elaborately decorated in order to attract females. All I had to do was hold him for a little while to let him rest. I thought maybe he had accidentally run into the large glass window nearby. After a few minutes cupped in my hands, he regained his composure and flew away.
It really is amazing how tiny, light, and cute hummingbirds are. They're so weightless in your hands. You wouldn't even know there was something there if it weren't for the rapid beating of their hearts pulsing against your palm.
I already miss the little one, hummingbirds are too unbearably cute! I had planted Mexican sage in my garden to attract them, and it pleased me to no end to have them buzz by as I pulled weeds.
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Taking a nap.