That's tough when birds choose a difficult place to nest. Do you know if she has eggs yet, or does she have babies? Before you consider the drastic step of moving the nest, you might want to think about how much time she will be there. Incubation time of hummingbird eggs is about 14 days, and once the babies hatch, they will stay in the nest for about 3-4 weeks before leaving the nest and fending for themselves. That means she should be gone by May 1st at the latest, probably a bit sooner. When are the grandkids coming? It's a known fact that birds are much more sensitive to nest disturbance when they are in the nest-building or incubating stages. Once they have babies, they will tolerate more disturbance and are much less likely to desert the nest. I'm speaking about birds in general, but don't know how sensitive hummingbirds are in this regard. I would advise against moving the nest, and try to keep the grandkids from running in and out of the door. By May 1st at the latest, she should be done. Then, for heaven's sake, get that lantern down so that she isn't tempted to renest. I'm not familiar with zone 9 nesting, so I'm not sure if she would try to renest, but don't take any chances. If you move the nest, she might abandon it. Once she has babies you might try it, but you'd still be taking a chance. If you were to move it, I would move it very gradually, a small distance each day. Try to make sure it stays in a place with similar conditions. Bear in mind, though, that she may have chosen that spot for reasons we don't understand--perhaps because it's sheltered and close to the house. Apparently human presence was not a deterrent to her, so presumably she's at least somewhat OK with it. If you were to move the nest from the shade into the sun, or the sun into the shade, or away from the shelter of the house and into the wind, or whatever, it might have a negative affect on her nesting success. The farther along the babies get, though, the less vulnerable they will be. I should probably also tell you that it is illegal to interfere with nesting birds. No one would likely find out, unless you told them, but if they did find out, you could be in trouble with the Federal government and be subject to fines. I know you're trying to do what's best for the hummingbird, but I think you're best off leaving the nest where it is, and trying to keep disturbance to a minimum. She'll be gone before you know it. I hope this helps.

Well I would check and see if there's any pendulum dancing because I saw a male don't know if it was the same one three times do the pendulum dance today twice the female didn't seem impressed keep looking tomorrow I bet you'll see it! Sarah

Yes, they do nest in snags, although occassionally in dead sections of a live tree. White-headed Woodpeckers are relatively weak excavators, so they need well-decayed snags to excavate a cavity. Thus, they like to use snags where the top has broken off so the cavities are usually below 3 m in height which makes it easier for trapping. We have a few cavities that are less than 3 feet high! That could say something about managed stands, not a lot of large tall snags for them to use. Often, they use old stumps from timber harvests. Of course, that puts them into jeopardy of getting predated by bears. But so far, they are doing okay at least reproductively. I find the nests by following the adults in early spring. I monitor many of the same territories from year to year so I have an idea of where they like to hang out. About mid-May, I start following them in earnest because that is peak time for cavity excavation. If I am lucky, the adult I follow while they forage will eventually lead me back to the cavity when they take turns excavating with the other sex. If that doesn't work, I simply start searching snags in their territory and look for signs of fresh excavating..chips on the ground. If that doesn't work, I wait until they are nesting and try to follow adults as they return to the cavity to incubate or feed the young. Sometimes, all that doesn't even work and they elude me...but not often. :-) We trapped two more males today and put transmitters on them and trapped another male at another nest and just color-banded him as the other researcher wants to put a transmitter on the female on that territory. She will go back later in the week to trap the females of those three pairs...that way we aren't trapping both birds on the same day and stressing them both out. That way, one bird isn't handled and can feed/brood the chicks while the other adult "recovers" from the trapping process. I will try to post more pics this weekend from the trapping and also of some nest snags so people can see what they use. Those are all on my work computer. BN

Thanks for your kind words Donna, we're glad you enjoyed the slideshow. I can't encourage anyone enuf to take photos of their yardbirds. It adds a great additional pleasure to birdwatching, and helps us observe their beauty in ways we can't see with our eyes alone. We are amateur photographers, and our Canon S3 is a very mode$t point and shoot model which anyone could learn to use. Getting close to your birds is really the key. To do this, you need a camera with a fair bit of zoom. The S3 has a very good 12x zoom lens built-in, and we also add a 1.7x teleconverter for many shots. The S3 model has been superceded now by Canon's S5 (for about the same price). This might be a good choice, but I've seen a lot of really good sharp photos taken with a variety of similar low-cost cameras. Check dpreview.com for more info than you'll ever need to know about digital cameras of every kind and price. I hope this helps, and that you can get started photographing your birds soon. best luck, Kenn