Educate Yourself About the Ruby-throated Hummingbird and Other Hummingbirds
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Trochilidae 75
The Ruby-throated hummingbird has a glowing, fiery red throat which appears black with backlighting, iridescent green back, long tail with deep notch, and the forked tail projects beyond wingtips. Its length is 3-3 ½ in (8-9cm) Its voice is a call that are squeaky and high. Male in aerial display makes a hum as he moves in a wide arc.
Their eggs are white with 2 clutches consisting of 2 eggs each. The female incubates for about 11-14 days and fledging time is around 14-28 days.The female feed the young.
The female is mostly green above and whitish below. Young hummingbirds have white throats as well.
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird to frequent eastern North America. Unbelievably enough, these gays are true marathon runners as their fall migration route starts in southern Canada, crossing the Gulf of Mexico into Central America. They start their migration back along the Gulf Coast in March, and working their way northward, and by the first week of May they have reached Canada.
These beautiful little living jewels, with their shimmering feathers, and their ever lasting energy is a true joy to have around. Hummingbirds come in a wonderful variety of colors, from green to bronze, and purple, blue, red, pink and orange. They are excellent little flying machines as well, as you can watch them stay stationary or move forward, backward, and sideways. When they are stationary you can actually hear their fast beating wings making a humming sound.
From all this constant movement they have to feed almost constantly throughout the day, and when nesting season begins around March, the male hummingbirds stake out a territory over a nectar producing bush, and turn into flying acrobats. Watch them swing like pendulums, or twist in arcs, most anything to impress the female. Once the mating hummingbirds have found one another, and are ready for their mating ritual, as they join together, spinning in tight little circles just above the ground.
The female will build a nest on a forked branch about 5-2-ft (1.5-6m) above the ground. The nest witch measures less than an inch across, and has room for two white eggs, the size of small beans. She uses light-weight materials like plant down, and spider webs, and decorate it with lichens on the outside, then fasten it to a small tree branch using its saliva. The female will build the nest, feed and raise the young with no help from the male. When returning from migration the following year, she will often go back to the same nesting site.
To attract Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and other hummers to your lovely bird feeding garden, plant terraced native plantings for hummingbirds, as well as trees, shrubs, vines, and plants that produces tube-shaped flowers in red, orange, and yellow.Put out the most colorful nectar feeders you can find on the market, red ones has been shown to attract the best. Once you have established hummingbirds in your garden, you can change the feeders into more subdued colors.
Fill your nectar feeders with a sugar solution using these measurements:
Use 1 part sugar, to 4 parts water, and you can use regular granulated sugar, witch will melt quickly in boiling water, or super fine sugar witch melts in cold water. Make sure the water is cold before you fill the feeders, and do not put any kind of food coloring into the solution, as this can harm the feeding birds. To learn more about hummingbird gardens and feeders go to our section on HUMMINGBIRD GARDENS.
