The webcam is maintained by Diane Davani, a stay-at-home mom, who first set it up in 2010 — and who did not anticipate the drama and the avalanche of publicity that would follow.
Diana got a call about an abandoned baby hummingbird in Aliso Viejo, stranded after its nest was accidentally cut down.
“We took care of this thing that looked like a shriveled-up, little black raisin,” Davani said. “Essentially, with my husband, we brought this thing back to life.”
But even experts couldn’t tell her whether Emma, an Anna’s hummingbird, would raise a tiny Allen’s hummingbird chick, a different species.
After a night of using a syringe to feed sugar water to the tiny chick, Davani decided to take a chance.
At dawn, when Emma got off the two babies, "we dropped this little black raisin into the nest,” Davani said. “She left with two babies and came back with three."
Emma raised the newcomer, which Davani named “Hope.”
That drew even more attention — not only from the public, but from bird rehabilitation specialists and scientists eager to learn whether hummingbirds would act as surrogate mothers.
They all fledged together!
Emma’s nest at present is protected from the rain with a nine-foot “humbrella"
“Hatch watch” officially starts on Wednesday
Emma's cam - http://www.ustream.tv/worldofhummingbirds
