METRO VANCOUVER - There's a new bird at Coquitlam City Hall, and everybody's all a-twitter.

An Anna's hummingbird has taken up residence in a tree outside the window of Mayor Richard Stewart, who has been documenting the bird's exploits with his camera for the past month-and-a-half.

His Facebook posts on the quick, wee bird, which started with musings on what hummingbirds eat in the winter, have roused curiosity in his community among bird-lovers, Stewart said, especially when he realized the bird was building a nest in a clump of moss.

Two tiny eggs, each about the size of a fingernail, have been laid in the mossy bed.

"The bird rescue folks had never seen a hummingbird in a nest before," Stewart said. "I've got several people in the community, especially bird lovers, who want to come in and meet with me. I'm like 'no, you just want to see the bird.' "

Rob Butler, a retired federal bird scientist with Canadian Wildlife Service and now president of the Pacific Wildlife Foundation, said it's not unusual see nesting hummingbirds, noting more have made their way north to nest over the past few decades and then stayed as people put out feeders to attract them.

The Anna's hummingbirds are now year-round residents, he said, and have the "longest breeding season of any bird in B.C.," running from now until September. Another species, the Rufous hummingbird, tends to arrive here in the spring when the salmonberries start flowering. They typically inhabit the same locations from year to year.

"They're amazing these little birds," Butler said, but noted humans should stay away from hummingbird nests to prevent attracting curious jays and crows, which would swoop in to steal their eggs.

Stewart, who said he loves photographing wildlife and birds, is considering putting a wildlife camera in his window to record the hatching of the hummingbird chicks. Two wildlife cameras he bought and installed at his house to document a robin's life have been used by some schools to show students the birds' development.

When he stopped posting about the robin, he said, a local schoolteacher called to ask him to start up again because the class was using it as a learning tool.

"It reminds us all of the majesty of nature," Stewart said.

ksinoski@postmedia.com

Twitter: @ksinoski

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