Nature is cruel sometimes.

    A little over a month ago we had a pair of sunbirds make a nest in the spanish moss hanging from the verandah on the front of our house. This has been such a pleasure to watch their speed and skill in making these pendulum nests. They are quite beautiful birds, as you can see below.

 We have this very bush in our yard and I often pick the blossoms for my lorikeets to feed on. The type of sunbird we get is the Olive Backed Sunbird.

This is the beginning of the nest. At first I thought some debris got blown into my moss and I picked it out, the next day, it was back but with more to it, that's when I knew a sunbird had picked it as a nest site.

The male sunbird finds materials and constructs this nest in about a week.

At what seems like a very short time two small eggs appeared. I didn't want to disturb them so I didn't take a picture. After about 2 weeks, these guys were in the nest. Amazing how quick they grow.

This is one of the chicks awaiting a feed from one of the parents.

It's always fun coming home and seeing how the babies are developing and watching the parents buzz in and out. Sunbirds build nests close to humans because we ward off predators. 

When I came home yesterday, this is what I found in the nest.

I was so confused, where could they have gone? Could the parents have carried them away? They were too young to fledge...

Then I looked on the ground below. The remains of one of the chicks, I have no idea what happened to the other. I did see the male sunbird flitting around on our back verandah.... maybe they will try again. I can only hope. I was so looking forward to watching their first flights. :(