Sunbird love

Can I tell you a little story about a couple of sunbirds.

We have a granadilla tree we planted next to the house about a year and a half ago. I’m surprised it has survived. We hadn’t taken into consideration the wind factor when we planted it, we just thought it would be a feature climbing up the archway we had erected last year. It would give height to the area and hopefully bring some shade too, in the heat of the summer.

This poor granadilla tree has stood the test of time, hanging on for dear life as we have been pounded by the north westerly winds this winter. It has been a particularly cold and wet winter, as all of us Capetonians know. The granadilla tentacles have blown around in the wind, battered mercilessly, but it still stands tall. We have trailed it and talked to it, fed it and admired it. I think that’s why it’s so resilient.

Another little family that have appreciated this granadilla tree is a couple of sunbirds. As the granadilla tree has grown and been trailed, an area has been created of granadilla bush, right next to the house. A female sunbird has decided this is the perfect place to build her nest.

The granadilla tree where the sunbirds are nesting, from the outside, the nest completely hidden

Greg had noticed about 6 weeks earlier that there was plenty of activity going on by a sunbird, flying back and forth. We couldn’t make out what was going on, from the outside you couldn’t see anything. Until one day, we took a look from the window inside. Tucked away in the granadilla bush was the most beautifully compact nest. The female sunbird had used twigs and pieces from the garden to build a nest that hung tightly to the tree, perfectly designed so that the clump of leaves hid the nest from the outside.

As we sat outdoors and watched, the female sunbird would arrive with white fluffy pieces in her mouth from the camphor bush. This must’ve been to line her nest. As she was busy coming and going, her male counterpart would land on a tree and chirp loudly. It seems he wasn’t allowed anywhere near whilst she was busy building the nest. When she had finished, she would fly away and the male would fly off with her too. They are such delicate, tiny creatures that when they fly they don’t fly straight but almost like a dance, up and down.

We have a perfect view of the sunbirds' nest from inside the house, on the left. In the distance is the tree the male was sitting on chirping loudly as the female made her nest.

This would happen all day long. Busy, busy sunbirds.

A little sidenote, the female is brown/olive green, I believe she is known as a brown throated sunbird and quite non descript, the male is colourful with bright colours in green and purple.

At times everything would go quiet. At one point we saw the male, but no sign of the female. We were worried something might’ve happened to her but then last week we looked into the granadilla bush from the window inside and there, tightly snug sat the little female sunbird. Her long beak poking out of the nest. The sweetest thing to marvel.

This is a photo I took off the internet, I have tried to take photos of the nest but it's so hard and I don't want to scare the sunbird and her babies. This is a nest similar to the one inside our granadilla tree.

We weren’t sure if the babies had hatched. But then the male sunbird reappeared and this time, was welcomed into the fold. He was no longer shunted to the tree opposite, but was allowed to take part in the happy event. We noticed movement. These tiny little sunbirds had hatched. The male and female sunbirds were both taking turns to feed their babies.

We have the most precious view of the comings and goings of these sunbirds from our window. It has given us such delight to watch this little family. Yesterday, we witnessed the female arrive and feed her babies. As she landed on one of the granadilla branches, you could already see the commotion going on in the nest. Whether they could hear her or smell her, they knew she was close by with food. As she hopped closer to the nest, we had front row seats of her delivering food to her baby chicks, their beaks opening wide to grab the takings.

What a wonderful piece of nature to witness.