Alyssa's Nature Sanctuary

An Allen’s hummingbird nest camera in Oceanside, CA streams live 24/7. You can even watch at night thanks to the wonders of infrared technology. Although the video appears bright, the nest is actually in complete darkness.

Her name is Olive. On February 21st, we spotted her nest in the ficus tree on our patio—the same tree hummingbirds have used in past years.

On April 24th, we noticed she had returned; there was one egg in the nest. On April 25th, she laid a second. Hummingbird eggs take about 14 days to hatch, and the babies usually leave the nest around 21 days after hatching.

On May 7th, at about 6:00 a.m., the first baby hatched, whom we named Sage. The second, Clover, hatched the next morning on May 8th at 5:00 a.m. At 11 days old, their eyes began to open. By day 13, their eyes were fully open, they were stretching their wings and learning to flap, and Olive no longer had room to sleep on the nest.

On May 27th, at 6:30 a.m., we discovered that Sage and Clover were severely infested with mites—they surely would have died without intervention. At 7:30 a.m., they were taken to a hummingbird rescue center in hopes they would recover. Sadly, early on the 29th, Clover lost her fight and passed away. Sage, however, made a full recovery.

We truly love having hummingbirds nest here and watching their tiny world unfold, but sometimes nature can be so cruel.