Bird gestation periods and other stuff

My post about "What brings you here?" actually brought more people looking for bird gestation periods. Google is sending people by the dozens who are looking for "hummingbird gestation period," "cardinal gestation period," "house wren gestation period," and so on. To those who have come here for that information, let me offer these notes.

• The black-chinned hummingbird gestation (incubation) period is about two weeks.
• From what I've been able to find on the Internet, cardinal eggs hatch after 11 to 13 days, house wrens hatch after 13 or 14 days.
• I've found it more productive to search for "incubation period" than "gestation period." Like I said below, I made the same mistake myself when I first wrote about the hummingbirds in my yard, so please don't think I'm criticizing! Just learning from my own mistakes.
  
• A great source for information about wild birds is Cornell's All About Birds web site.

In other bird news, I just bought a pair of hummingbird houses from Dan and Diane True. They came in the mail today. I haven't yet put them up, but I have high hopes. I think there will have to be a negotiation with Paul about where to locate these nest platforms. I want to install one under the patio roof, next to a supporting column that blocks the wind. That just happens to be right over where our grill lives, though, so a hummingbird nest would curtail our grilling activities. Of course, we could move the grill, but Paul's a little set in his ways. We shall see if he goes for this.

Along with the hummingbird houses, I also bought the Trues' hummingbird DVD. Amazing! It's fascinating to watch the nest building process and there's even video of a mother hummingbird laying an egg. I highly recommend the video to all hummingbird lovers.

In yet more bird news, the hooded oriole I wrote about back on April 17 has decided to hang around. In the last week I've seen both the male and a female on the hummingbird feeder. They've decided this is really an oriole feeder, except that the perches are too close to the feeding ports. They solve that problem by leaning around the bottle and drinking from the feeding port on the other side. While I applaud their ingenuity, I've decided to buy an oriole feeder just for them...and, of course, any friends and family they might have in the neighborhood.

While I wait for the feeder to be delivered, I've bought some oranges and have attempted to make them available to the orioles. My first attempt was to put a cut orange on a table on the patio. I watched the female oriole hang off the hummingbird feeder and examine the orange, but she made no attempt to fly to the table and claim her prize. It looked to me as if she were thinking, "Um, yeah. See, I know oranges, and oranges grow on trees. Oranges that are on a flat surface are rotten and have fallen off the tree. Get a clue."

So I got a clue. I have now tied an orange to that column I mentioned earlier. It's very near the hummingbird feeder, so the orioles can't miss it. I decided not to tie the orange to a tree because my trees seem to all be covered with ants. There wouldn't be any orange left for the orioles if the ants got there first. If the orioles turn their beaks up at the orange I've affixed to my house, I'm just going to eat the rest of the oranges myself and let the birds wait for the feeder. (That's not too terribly heartless of me since the feeder is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.) In the meantime, they don't seem to mind using the hummingbird feeder. The hummers mind, but the orioles don't.