[cobirds] Broad-tailed Hummingbird nest/roost location update

Well, Kotter (our resident male broad-tailed hummingbird - BTHU) continues to roost every night, at the same time, on the same exact spot on a twig in our backyard. This is his second year here at that spot – that I am aware of. He may well have been using that in previous years also. I only got my hot tub two seasons ago.

 

I just came to realize a few nights ago that he has company in his Douglas Fir. And I now realize that this second male BTHU has been there this whole season. I had thought that Kotter came in, and if I was in the hot tub, would sometimes choose to sit about 2 feet further up (same site characteristics, needle-laden-limb-roof over his head and perched on a tiny descending twig) and a few minutes later when he was used to me, he would come down to his regular perch right in front of me and just over the hot tub. So much for my powers of observation!

 

With friends in my hot tub also on Monday night, I was giving them the story and telling them what to expect. Sure enough a male BTHU came in, but alit on the higher secondary perch; I expected that as there were 4 of us in the tub talking. Harder to see, but everyone got looks at him through the limb that is the roof over the primary usual perch. A flutter of cricket-sounding wings and there Kotter is on his lower perch. But wait, my friends said, that other hummingbird is still on the higher perch. Two males; two feet apart; both on a perch directly over my walkway next to my hot tub; both choosing identically structured perch sites just two feet apart vertically. More evidence for this male roost site selection characteristic! Quite surprised that two males roost so close to each other.

 

I have checked every night since Monday, and sure enough, both males are in their spots in that tree. They do not deviate 1 millimeter from where they perch each night.

 

In addition, on my hike above the Black Swift Zapata Falls last week up to South Zapata Lake above tree line, we discovered a female BTHU nest. 25 feet high in a Douglas Fir; and if you dropped a penny from the nest, it would have landed in the middle of the trail. And, the nest was on the lower limb of an up-and-down forked limb. In this case, both limbs were about 2” in diameter; as it has to support a nest instead of a perching male’s tiny feet. While I failed to capture a photo showing the location of the nest over the trail, I do have a picture of a closeup of the nest; see here. http://www.acdseeonline.com/shared-photo/JJ272/p2aKpqTnPVIJcpKmDLrI/15413637/#15413637

 

fyi

 

Jeff J Jones

(jjones@jonestc.com)

Teller County - 8500' - Montane Woodlands