How Many Eggs Do Hummingbirds Lay?

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Part of the video series: Hummingbirds

Summary: Hummingbirds lay two eggs at a time for each season, and a female can lay up to 12 eggs in a lifetime. Understand a hummingbird's reproductive cycle with information from a national wildlife steward in this free video on bird life.

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By Barbara Ann Dewitt
eHow Presenter

Contact: www.browardaudubon.org

Barbara Ann Dewitt is a national wildlife steward and master gardener who has specialized in butterflies and birds since 1979. She travels the world lecturing on these beautiful...read more

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"Hello, my name is Barbara Dewitt. I'm a National Wildlife Federation Stewart with the Broward County Audubon Society. Hummingbirds lay two eggs in their nest. They're laid several days apart, and the female sits on the nest and incubates it. The nest of the ruby-throated hummingbird is the size of a walnut, and the eggs are each the size of a jellybean. The female stays there and the male will bring her food. And he will go off and get nectar, and she'll stay right there protecting them. Usually, they lay it in a very...their...they make their nests in a protected area. The male will bring very small filaments in to make the nest, and it'll take a little bit of time to make that nest and the...while the female is producing the eggs or they're growing in her body and they'll have a shell on them. And when they're ready, then she'll lay those eggs. Since hummingbirds live between three and six years on average, that would mean they would...the most eggs that a female would lay would be 12. There are predators that might come and take the nests from the eggs like snakes in the area or raccoons or other lizards that might be around. So the female really does a good job of protecting those eggs and sitting on that nest from 70 to 100 percent or 90 percent of the time."