Ruby-throated Hummingbird Gallery
Archilochus colubris
eBird describes the Ruby-throated Hummingbird this way: Only species of hummingbird that breeds in eastern U.S. and Canada. Found in a variety of wooded and brushy habitats. Males have red-and-black throat, greenish upperparts, dingy whitish belly, and dark tail. Females are green above and whitish below, lacking buffy-orange tones underneath. Readily comes to sugar water feeders and flower gardens. All About Birds adds this descriptive information for this bird: A flash of green and red, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is eastern North America’s sole breeding hummingbird. These brilliant, tiny, precision-flying creatures glitter like jewels in the full sun, then vanish with a zip toward the next nectar source. Feeders and flower gardens are great ways to attract these birds, and some people turn their yards into buzzing clouds of hummingbirds each summer. Enjoy them while they’re around; by early fall they’re bound for Central America, with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight.
I first saw a Ruby-throated Hummingbird in Crested Butte, Colorado, on July 26, 2017. There was a feeder outside of my second floor condo and I saw these birds many times during the course of the week I was there. I next saw the Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Christmas Mountains Oasis on August 31, 2020. I saw several of these beautiful birds that day!
“Cool Facts” about the Ruby-throated Hummingbird from All About Birds…
- The Ruby-throated Hummingbird beats its wings about 53 times a second.
- The extremely short legs of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird prevent it from walking or hopping. The best it can do is shuffle along a perch. Nevertheless, it scratches its head and neck by raising its foot up and over its wing.
- Scientists place hummingbirds and swifts in the same taxonomic order, the Apodiformes. The name means “without feet,” which is certainly how these birds look most of the time.
- Ruby-throated Hummingbirds prefer to feed on red or orange flowers (though it’s not necessary to color the sugar water you put in a hummingbird feeder). Like many birds, hummingbirds have good color vision and can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, which humans can’t see.
- Ruby-throated Hummingbirds normally place their nest on a branch of a deciduous or coniferous tree; however, these birds are accustomed to human habitation and have been known to nest on loops of chain, wire, and extension cords.
- Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are eastern North America’s only breeding hummingbird. But in terms of area, this species occupies the largest breeding range of any North American hummingbird.
- Male Ruby-throated Hummingbirds don’t stick around long. Pairs are together long enough for courtship and mating – just a matter of days to weeks. Then he’s off on his own, and may begin migration by early August.
- The oldest known Ruby-throated Hummingbird was a female, and at least 9 years, 1 month old when she was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in West Virginia.