If you are anything like me, by May, you will be in full garden mode, sowing seeds, deadheading blooms, and trimming winter-flowering shrubs and trees. But before you reach for the pruning shears, there’s a reason to pause and slow down. During spring, many female hummingbirds are nesting. And, as you might know, these tiny birds create tiny nests, so small and expertly camouflaged, it’s often easy to miss them altogether.
During March, April and May, these miniature birds build intricate, lichen-covered nests barely the size of a golf ball, as can be seen in the images here. They tuck them into forked branches and overgrown shrubs, exactly the spots many of us might consider trimming and tidying at this time. That’s why, before you grab the pruners this month, it’s worth watching for signs of nesting activity.
