{"id":536556,"date":"2026-03-21T10:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/536556\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T10:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T10:48:12","slug":"rehabber-raising-orphaned-hummingbirds-gets-surprising-help-from-a-wild-visitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/536556\/","title":{"rendered":"Rehabber Raising Orphaned Hummingbirds Gets Surprising Help From A Wild Visitor"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a recent morning, Lila Talcott-Travis sat on the front porch of her Victorian home in San Francisco\u2019s Potrero Hill neighborhood, listening to birds \u2014 specifically, two hummingbird babies peeping loudly, begging for food.<\/p>\n

\"TwoYggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

Talcott-Travis, founder of Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/a>, took the babies in after a concerned homeowner noticed their mother disappeared during a windstorm a few days earlier.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\"AYggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly a mama hummingbird \u2026 comes right up to me and then goes to the babies and feeds them,\u201d Talcott-Travis told The Dodo. \u201cI’ve never seen anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the wild hummingbird perched briefly on the babies\u2019 carrier, then dutifully fed them before flying away.<\/p>\n

\"AYggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that she would buzz me, come within two feet of my face,\u201d Talcott-Travis laughed, \u201cit was almost like she was scolding me for allowing the babies to cry like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

Talcott-Travis has worked in wildlife rehabilitation since 1998, and she now has more than 20 years of experience with hummingbirds. She called them \u201chigh maintenance,\u201d in part because orphaned baby hummingbirds require constant attention and lots of protein.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeYggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This is when the wild bird stepped in. She returned many times to feed the babies, to Talcott-Travis\u2019 complete astonishment.<\/p>\n

\"AYggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

\u201cHummingbirds are very independent,\u201d she said. \u201cThey’re always fierce. They’re very rarely frightened, I’ve noticed.\u201d<\/p>\n

It made her wonder if this mama was a former resident, coming back to check on things.<\/p>\n

\"AYggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was a female that I’ve raised that has established herself here,\u201d Talcott-Travis said. \u201cThey’ll be like, \u2018I know you, I’m not going to get close, but I’m going to get closer than I would normally.\u2019 That kind of behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the mom first stopped by to help out, she\u2019s continued to care for Talcott-Travis\u2019 babies. One baby even fledged and joined his adoptive mama \u2014 another first for Talcott-Travis.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue<\/p>\n

\u201cShe took over,\u201d Talcott-Travis said. \u201cHe’s following her the way that they’re supposed to do \u2026 with their mothers in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

After decades of wildlife rehab, Talcott-Travis is still amazed by the resilience and compassion animals show on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.\"Grieving<\/a>Grieving Mama Dog\u2019s Instincts Take Over When Orphaned Babies Arrive At ShelterShe knew exactly what to do \u2665\ufe0f<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a recent morning, Lila Talcott-Travis sat on the front porch of her Victorian home in San Francisco\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[240582,2356,616,164897,240583,240584,129154,614,79,615,613,201,3756,240581],"class_list":["post-536556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-baby-hummingbirds","tag-california","tag-daily-dodo","tag-hummingbird","tag-hummingbirds-getting-fed","tag-mama-animals","tag-orphaned-animals","tag-sarah-ashley","tag-science","tag-standard","tag-the-dodo","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-encounters","tag-wildllife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}