The Sunbird Feast!

10 July 2022 - A lazy Sunday morning. I was standing near our window on the first floor of our bungalow, looking at our bougainvillas which have grown amok! I see a strange fist sized object? Oh wow - is it a "nest" perhaps. A strange sort of cap on top of the nest, an oval shape with a hole in the middle and a strange "beard" at the bottom of the oval nest. Brown in color, seems to be made of twigs, cotton, lichen and more..

10 July - Later in the day - we saw a male sunbird outside. Yes, its confirmed! This must be a sunbirds nest!! Looked online and confirmed the same. Woo hoo!! The video below shows the male popping in, dark above and yellow below.

Soon a female sunbird actually comes and pokes her head into the nest. Her head is into the nest and tail is pointing outwards. Ok .. the game is afoot!

15 July. 16 July - What do we see? The Female sunbird is sitting in the nest. We keep watching her. She does not budge. Sitting for long hours. She pops out once in a while, flies and comes back quickly. In the video below, you can see her swaying with the wind

17 July to 27 July - She is still there. Same Zen like pose. See her in the video below, once in a while chomping on her beak while the wind sways the nest dramatically! Notice the "nice cap" above the head of the sunbird and the "beard" below. We think the beard is for balance. this will get proved with what the male does with the beard later in the weeks to come

27 Jul - 3 Aug 2022 Something is afoot. The female is no longer in a sitting pose. it?? The video below shows her head outside lunging forward. As if she is sitting on something. Could it be eggs... could it? could it!!!!

5 Aug, 2022 .. See the video below of the female poking her head in and out, multiple times. Surely surely it must be to see the eggs, babies

5 Aug, 2022 at 2 pm. We hear faint sounds from the nest. Yes yes it must be baby, babies?? The video below captures the faint sound.

6 Aug 2022 - Ladies and gentleman - yes, its a baby!!!!. After a month of waiting, we see a small head popping out looking upwards with a wide triangular beak (very unlike adult sunbird), pink at the edges of the beak and pink below the jaw. At regular intervals, the baby dramatically pops out even more and opens its mouth wide (as if asking for food).

After 1 minute of watching the baby relentlessly asking for food, the mamma bird dramatically appears from nowhere and a second baby's head pops out with an open mouth asking for food! Mamma feeds them and looks away and then seems to pick an small object perhaps insect which she gives to one of the babies. She then looks inside the nest multiple times before flying awat

The video below shows all the action. The noise you hear is the rain pouring!! At minute 1:15, you see the mamma bird appearing.

6 Aug at 3 pm Pappa bird is sitting on top of the nest. Yes, I was wondering where you were :-) Looks like he is adjusting the nest on the top. The pappa bird climbs down a bit more and keeps making sounds as if to tell mamma bird where he is.. You can see the greenish color above the head and the purple color from shoulder downward and the yellow color in the front of the male sunbird. See video below with all details

6 Aug 2022, 30 seconds later, we see the male sunbird now adjusting the "beard" of the nest. Is it because the babies are heavy and there is some counter balancing to be done?

Same day, 30 minutes later - mamma first and then pappa bird come to feed! Both birds seem to smack their beak together as if they are regurgitating. You see the baby bird coming out almost out of the nest when the pappa bird comes to feed.

7 Aug, 2022 - the babies already look much more developed. In the pic below, you can see their eye which also looks as if they are open

8 Aug, 2022 - We can now see the well formed faces of the kiddos pop out as usual demanding for food. As soon as the day starts, the constant "cheep cheep" can be heard. We keep wondering how the parent birds manage to feed themselves and the kids. They seem to be constantly feeding the kiddos.

12 Aug - The beaks are so well formed and triangular beaks. See video below.

12 Aug, 2022 - An amazing sight at 9 am. The mamma bird does not feed the kids. But seems to look inside the nest. And then the most amazing sight, she removes a white looking gelatinuous pouch from the inside of the nest and flies away. What is it you ask - > It is the fecal sac. Turns out that when the kids have to "poop", they poop a "diaper" and poop into it. This helps to keep the nest clean.

See the pic of the fecal sac in the mouth of the sunbird

18 Aug 10 am - No sound from the nest. Cheep cheep outside the balcony. We run outside and omg! we see baby sunbird fully formed sitting out on the wire. Looking a little frazzled. Short tail, a pink tell tale dot near its beak to distinguish it from its parents. Not ready to move from the wire. Moving its body from side to side.

In the video below, you can see the baby bird looking frantically side to side. The louder and insistent cheep cheep sound is from the mamma bird urging the baby to fly. you can see the mamma bird with the longer tail who is sitting a little away on a wire.

one month and 7 days after the nest was made, the babies were out. Pics below just show the details from the videos more clearly.

See the pink dot on the side of the beak of the baby bird and the momma bird tail which is longer than the babys tail

Nature in all its glory was on full display for one month. We are grateful to mamma and pappa bird for choosing our house.