Hummingbird in the Home

March was such a lovely month for weather here in Arizona.  I loved being able to open up the doors and blinds.

One day while I had the door open we had an unexpected visitor... a hummingbird! 

In our home we have a roof that starts at about 10 feet and then goes up to about 15 feet in our main room.  At the highest point of 15 feet we have 3 windows that let in a lot of light. 

Well, this little guy flew in our door and then became determined to leave only through one of these windows... which are too high for me to reach. 

Needless to say I was at a loss for words of how to resolve the situation.

https://vimeo.com/94582344

I ended up closing all of our blinds for the other windows and left the door open hoping that the little guy would be attracted to the greatest amount of light coming in from the door.  Well... it was a good thought in theory but it still insisted on trying to get out through one of these high windows . 

Eventually I just decided that when the little guy got tired enough it would come down lower and see the door as the open exit and leave.  There was nothing I could really do except wait.  No use in stopping my daily activities so I went about them as normal.

I can say that for our cats this was the most exciting day that they had had in a long time.  They were thoroughly entertained by the bird.  It was actually thanks to one of our cats that I was finally able to catch our visitor. 

Look just to the left of the corner of the ceiling and you can see the bird flying.

About 2-3 hours after it entered the hummingbird started flying lower and lower.  Raggio perched himself in the prime position on top of the couch and when the bird flew just low enough he jumped in the air knocked it into our sliding glass door.  It was at this point that I then got Raggio out of the way and threw a blanket over the little guy so it wouldn't go up in the air again.  I then slowly approached it and disentangled it from the blanket and blinds.  Poor thing was probably scared out of its wits. 

I didn't hang on to it for too long.  Just long enough to show my neighbors (who are big bird enthusiasts) and to snap a couple of pictures.  Shortly thereafter it took flight and was gone. 

This has been the second time in my life that I have held a hummingbird in my hands.  Not a very common thing for people to say, so I feel rather lucky.  The first time was on Christmas day 2010.  A hummingbird flew into my parent's glass windows and knocked itself up a bit.  We (my dad and I) held on to it for a little while so we could show the grandkids that were coming over to celebrate, and then we let it go.







Needless to say, both little birds were strong enough to survive the trauma of being held by a human and have lived to tell the tale (as far as I know that is).  Hummingbirds in the home, good times.