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ladyamity

Help with Injured Hummer - What to do! ? PICS

ladyamity
15 years ago

About an hour ago my daughter was raking leaves, saw something colorful on the ground, bent down, it was a Hummer.

Wings up tight against it's body, little feet and legs curled up tight against it's body.

Daughter didn't want ants to get at it so brought it to me.

I turned it over and one of the little legs looked broken.

Further inspection, and with 300+ reading glasses I saw the leg was caught up in what looked to be bird doo-doo.

We dampened a Q-Tip with warm water and swabbed the leg.

Soon the doo-doo was able to be gently pulled away from the leg.

The eyes of the hummer were closed with gunk so we wet a Q-Tip and wiped the eyes.

The Hummer turned over on it's own! Sat very quietly in daughter's hand but at least now the wings are moving along with his head.

We used a bit of hummer juicy on end of Q-tip to coax the Hummer to drink and sure enough, it did!

BUT...now what????

I was wondering if the hummer was a baby and fell out of a nest somewhere?

So I went looking, pushing aside vines, trying to see anything resembling a nest...so far, no nest.

What do we do now???

OMG, I don't want to hurt the hummer any more by doing the wrong thing!

Right now my daughter told me the hummer is reaching on his own for the Q-tip with juicy and the little tongue is coming way out to drink.

She just tried putting hummer on the feeder and nope, he wanted the juicy from the Q-Tip....I'm so afraid of hurting him any more..what do I do now????

Thank you for ANY help you can give!

Here are a few really bad pics I've just taken:

http://s87.photobucket.com/albums/k137/Lady_Amity/Hummer%20Injured/

Amity

Here is a link that might be useful: Bad/fuzzy pics of Hummer in Daughter's hand

Comments (6)

  • beaniebeagle
    15 years ago

    keep doing what you are doing
    put him in a little but open box
    try to be gentle while moving it around, little kids fingers could squish it since they dont always understand how gentle they need to be
    take him outside to see if he will fly away
    i'm not an expert, but looks too colorful to be a baby
    try some small insects or spiders in addition to the sugar water....NO ants, formic acid could kill it( ithink)

    he may just need to get his energy up before flying away

  • ladyamity
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    OMG THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOUUUUU!

    Bless you for responding. I had just cross-posted this on the Bird forum because time was passing and I didn't want to do anything wrong!

    I've feed them for years. The same guys stick around all year, very territorial. I figured two of them butted heads and this one went down.

    But after finding so much doo-doo caked on the little leg I was maybe thinking it was a youngin that had been in the nest and tried to fly, but didn't.

    I added a few more pics and right now while I'm on the computer trying to find out what to do, I have him next to me...the screen is stapled except for one side.

    OK, I'll take him back outside, keep offering Hummer Juicy and find some worms to squish up.

    I happen to have a ton of aphids on one bush, would that be OK to mush up and try to feed?

    Hopefully you are right on and he's just trying to get his energy back up.

    Again, THANK YOU, sincererly...from the bottom of our hearts!

    Amity

  • beaniebeagle
    15 years ago

    he wont eat the worms

    i think that if you have aphids that are alive on top of the qtip, that he would be more willing to try them

    or even just cut a stem with a lot of aphids on it,then put that in front of him

  • lisa11310
    15 years ago

    I see you are already here! GOOD! Good luck, hummers at this time of year are forgine to me in Michigan.

  • bluebirdbabe
    15 years ago

    Hummingbirds love fruit flies. Rotten bananas are a good source for attracting them.

    Karen

  • sheilajoyce_gw
    15 years ago

    We found a stunned hummer when we came home one day. It was on the counter outside our kitchen window pass through, and assumed it had hit the window. We had no idea how long it had been there. DS lifted it up, propped it on top of a wood block to make it high enough, placed our HB feeder next to it and put his beak into the feeder slot. He was so exhausted that he could not move his head. After some time, 30-60 minutes with his beak in the feeder slot, DS picked him up to see if he would fly away, but he did not. At some point, maybe after more feeding, he cupped him in his hands and moved his arms in a large arc, and the bird up and flew away. I think the lift from son swinging his arms helped the bird get a lift into the air from a stationery position. I was scared for the little fellow, but my son sure knew how to help him following his instincts.

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