Field Guide/Birds/Archilochus colubris
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The Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Archilochus colubris, is a small hummingbird. It is 7-9 cm long with a 8-11 cm wingspan, and weighs 2-6 g.
Adults are metallic green above and greyish white below. Their bill is long, straight and very slender. The adult male, shown in the photo, has a glossy ruby red throat patch and a dark forked tail. The female has a dark rounded tail with white tips and no throat patch.
The breeding habitat is open areas throughout most of eastern North America and the Canadian prairies. The female builds a nest in a protected location in a shrub or tree. The male aggressively defends feeding locations within his territory.
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is migratory, spending most of the winter in Mexico or Central America.
These birds feed on nectar from flowers using a long extendable tongue or catch insects on the wing.
Due to their small size, they are vulnerable to insect-eating birds and animals. These birds require frequent feeding while active during the day and become torpid at night to conserve energy. This is the only hummingbird commonly found in eastern North America.
Females lay two white eggs the size of navy beans!
The most famous poem about a hummingbird is probably the one penned by Emily Dickinson in 1879 about the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
A Route of Evanescence,
With a revolving Wheel -
A Resonance of Emerald
A Rush of Cochineal -
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head -
The Mail from Tunis - probably,
An easy Morning's Ride -
External links
- http://www.hummingbirdsociety.org/photogallery - photographs of this and other hummingbird species
