A Beautiful Little Bird
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is one of sixteen hummingbirds to inhabit North America. It is a tiny bird, weighing less than a penny. Hummingbirds are the only species that can fly in any direction including upside down and backwards.
Description
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a tiny bird approximately 3 ½ inches long. The adults have a metallic green back and a grayish-white belly. Their wings are dark gray almost black. As with most hummingbirds, their bill is long, straight and very slender. The adult male has a distinctive iridescent ruby red throat and a dark forked tail. The female may have a throat patch as well, but it will be white rather than the distinctive ruby color of her male counterparts. Her tail is rounded rather than forked and has white tips.
The male Ruby-throated Hummingbird is slightly smaller than the female and his beak is shorter. Molting occurs in the fall just before the autumn migration.
Range and Habitat
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird's breeding habitat covers most of eastern North America and Canada. They can be found in deciduous and pine forests, orchards, and gardens.
They are a migratory bird and spend most of the winter in the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America.
Feeding Habits
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is predominantly a nectar feeder. Using its 
long bill, it extracts the nectar from flowers and flowering trees, but will occasionally feast on insects and tree sap. When feeding in a garden, the Red-throated Hummingbirds will usually feed from the red, tubular flowers first.
Beautiful Hummingbird Feeders
Don't Forget the Nectar
Nectar Hummingbird, 2.5 oz Red
Amazon Price: $4.60 (as of 12/16/2009)
Flight
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird has long, blade-like wings that only connect to the body at the shoulder joint. This allows the wings to rotate 180 degrees. This adaptation allows the hummingbird to fly forward, straight up and down, sideways and backwards. It can hover directly in front of a nectar feeder or flower while it feeds as well. The wings beat an average of 55 to 75 beats per second but can reach as high as 200 beats per second.
Share the pleasure.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 500p
Amazon Price: $8.95 (as of 12/16/2009)
Share your love of birds with this 500 piece puzzle.
Behavior
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird are solitary birds. Except for mating, there is little contact between the adults. Both the males and females will aggressively defend their feeding grounds especially in late summer and early fall as they fatten up for migration.
They feed frequently throughout the day, but when the temperature drops at night, they conserve energy by entering a hypothermic torpor.
Know your Hummingbirds
Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds to Your Backyard: Watch Your Garden Come Alive With Beauty on the Wing (A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)
Amazon Price: $12.89 (as of 12/16/2009)
Stokes Hummingbird Book : The Complete Guide to Attracting, Identifying, and Enjoying Hummingbirds
Amazon Price: $10.07 (as of 12/16/2009)
The Secret Lives of Hummingbirds
Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 12/16/2009)
A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America (Peterson Field Guides)
Amazon Price: $14.96 (as of 12/16/2009)
Creating a Hummingbird Garden
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Attracting Birds to Your Backyard
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Next to gardening, bird watching is one of the fastest growing hobbies around. It doesn't require a trip around the world or thousands of dollars worth of specialized equipment. All you need to do is step out your back door and wait. It's cold...
Peterson's Field Guide to Birds
Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)
Amazon Price: $16.38 (as of 12/16/2009)
Peterson's Field Guide to Birds is an absolute must have for anyone with a bird feeder and an interest in watching the birds.
Some of My Favorite Backyard Birds
The Bold and BeautifulThe American Goldfinch
The Blue Jay
The Northern Cardinal
Cheerful Singers
The European Starling
The Northern Mockingbird
The American Robin
The Shy Ones
The Eastern Bluebird
The Carolina Wren
Seen any interesting birds lately?
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Reply
- JennySui JennySui Nov 17, 2009 @ 7:38 am
- Great Lens. I would love to see more good lenses like this.
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Reply
- jptanabe jptanabe Jul 13, 2009 @ 9:37 am
- Lovely! I just saw a hummingbird in my backyard yesterday. I love the way they just stop in the air to look at a flower. This one decided against it and flew off, but maybe it'll be back today!
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Reply
- dustytoes dustytoes Jun 22, 2009 @ 9:25 am
- Love this one! Hummingbirds are fun to watch. I'm adding a link to my bird feeder lens.
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Reply
- Heather426 Heather426 May 23, 2009 @ 5:49 pm
- Love all your lenses..I'm a fellow bird lover, esp outdoor ones.
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Reply
- spirituality spirituality May 15, 2009 @ 9:03 am
- Great lens - you've been blessed by a squidoo angel :)
- Load More
About the Author
Lensmaster ElizabethJeanAllen has been a member since March 16 2008, has rated 4,012 lenses, favorited 445, and has created 200 lenses from scratch. Lizzy Jean donates their royalties to Squidoo Charity Fund. This member's top-ranked page is "The Mallard Duck". See all my lenses
Why Birds Do That
Why Birds Do That: 40 Distinctive Bird Behaviors Explained & Photographed
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 12/16/2009)
Birds are fascinating. Their behavior is complex, often comical. Some sing while others do not. Why Birds Do That explains forty distinctive bird behaviors and is enhanced with numerous photographs. It is a must have book for both the backyard bird watcher as well as the avid birder.
Resources used to construct this page
Peterson, T.P. & Peterson, V.M. 2002. Birds of Eastern and Central North America, Fifth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, N.Y.
Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology
Ruby-throated Hummingbird, National Geographic
Seattle Audubon Society
Managing Land for Wildlife, University of Maine Cooperative Extension
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by ElizabethJeanAllen
I tell my students to Learn from the Past, Live in the Present, and Plan for the Future. With Squidoo I can do all three.
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