On a recent morning, Lila Talcott-Travis sat on the front porch of her Victorian home in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, listening to birds — specifically, two hummingbird babies peeping loudly, begging for food.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
Talcott-Travis, founder of Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue, took the babies in after a concerned homeowner noticed their mother disappeared during a windstorm a few days earlier.
She’d been caring for the babies, hardly the size of her pinky fingernail, ever since. But as Talcott-Travis reached for a syringe full of protein-rich nectar to feed them, something fluttered boldly in front of her face.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
“Suddenly a mama hummingbird … comes right up to me and then goes to the babies and feeds them,” Talcott-Travis told The Dodo. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Sure enough, the wild hummingbird perched briefly on the babies’ carrier, then dutifully fed them before flying away.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
“The fact that she would buzz me, come within two feet of my face,” Talcott-Travis laughed, “it was almost like she was scolding me for allowing the babies to cry like that.”
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
Talcott-Travis has worked in wildlife rehabilitation since 1998, and she now has more than 20 years of experience with hummingbirds. She called them “high maintenance,” in part because orphaned baby hummingbirds require constant attention and lots of protein.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
Growing hummingbird babies need food every 20 to 30 minutes, so Talcott-Travis put them in a small carrier to take with her as she moved about her day.
This is when the wild bird stepped in. She returned many times to feed the babies, to Talcott-Travis’ complete astonishment.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
“Hummingbirds are very independent,” she said. “They’re always fierce. They’re very rarely frightened, I’ve noticed.”
It made her wonder if this mama was a former resident, coming back to check on things.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
“I think it was a female that I’ve raised that has established herself here,” Talcott-Travis said. “They’ll be like, ‘I know you, I’m not going to get close, but I’m going to get closer than I would normally.’ That kind of behavior.”
Since the mom first stopped by to help out, she’s continued to care for Talcott-Travis’ babies. One baby even fledged and joined his adoptive mama — another first for Talcott-Travis.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue
“She took over,” Talcott-Travis said. “He’s following her the way that they’re supposed to do … with their mothers in the wild.”
After decades of wildlife rehab, Talcott-Travis is still amazed by the resilience and compassion animals show on a daily basis.
Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue is a 501(c)(3) organization run entirely by volunteers. If you’d like to support their work, you can donate via their website.
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