Ruby Throated Hummingbirds
Ruby Throated Hummingbirds have arrived, coming from as far south as southern Mexico and northern Panama. Since hummingbirds lead solitary lives and neither live nor migrate in flocks, an individual bird may spend the winter anywhere in this range where the habitat is favorable, but probably returns to the same location each winter.
Some will skirt the Gulf of Mexico and follow the Texas coast north, while most apparently cross the Gulf, typically leaving at dusk for a nonstop flight of up to 500 miles, which takes 18-22 hours depending on the weather.
Hummingbirds are carnivores, nectar is just the fuel to power their flycatching activity. Ruby-throats begin moving north as early as January, and by the end of February they are at the northern coast of Yucatan, gorging on insects and spiders to add a thick layer of fat in preparation for flying to the U.S.
The initial urge to migrate is by the shortening length of sunlight and has nothing to do with temperature or the availability of food; amazing that nature follows the Light. The sun, moon and stars, they have a purpose. Amazing how it all comes together as designed.
Ruby Throated Hummingbirds
27 Replies to “Ruby Throated Hummingbirds”
Beautiful photos Sandra. I’m learning how to take bird shots. In my younger days I spent some time in the Borrego Springs area and in the desert when blooming. I saw part of the hummingbird migration and it was unbelievable.
Wow, that would be quite the sight. They travel so far for such small birds.. I would love to see that also. 😊
[Sandra – I apologize for my tardiness in commenting. I am many days behind in Reader thanks to a major computer malfunction at work. On May 20th, our Outlook crashed and we lost our ability to e-mail for about five days, plus lost all our data; we went from Outlook and Word 2010 to Office 365. I’ve spent a great deal of my own time troubleshooting with the I.T. guy and spent most of the long holiday weekend doing yardwork. So now I will try my best to get through a massive amount of blog posts.]Oh, they are so beautiful Sandra … you have captured them bigger than life. I was so excited to see Hope and a friend the other day. I was working in the yard and put my pole cutter against the fence. The handle is bright red and it’s about seven feet tall. Next thing I knew two hummingbirds were buzzing around the feeder. I’m convinced it was the handle that drew them, though I have red ribbons tied at the top of the shepherd’s hook to help them see the feeder.
Amazing how they like the color red, I had a red hat hanging at the porch, they sure loved visiting it.
I’ve left the surveyor’s ribbon tied on the shepherd’s hook even though they’ve discovered the feeder. They probably think the red hat is a huge feeder to feast on. 🙂
Very.awesome photos and beautiful lines 👌🙏🌷
Thank you very much.
😍❤
Thank you Seraja 😊❤
Your welcome cutie
When I lived in Oregon I was constantly visited by a female Rufous hummingbird. She guarded the feeder from other birds. I was amazed to see her when winter arrived because I believed that species migrated during the cold season. Amazing post about an amazing bird.
Thank you very much, here there are 3 males flying around and they always are chasing each other away from the feeders. And I have 3 feeders far from each other. They are a joy to watch. 😊
Great shots I love those birds
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Laugh, People want to see your teeth
Thank you Mr.Ohh😊
Fascinating to read more about the wondrous hummingbird. So small and still so mighty.
They are quite something. I love it when they just fly in one spot, hovering like they are perched on something.
Informative post and great photos!
Beautiful…
Thanks, Sandra, have a great day
Very interesting facts and beautiful pictures!
My parents had several hummingbird feeders outside their kitchen window and a couple of bird feeders. Most mornings, we would have little conversation. We would just watch the dynamics of the birds. A cardinal would approach and usually the hummingbirds would clear out, but sometimes not. You have brought back fond memories, and I love the idea of the birds following the Light.
Thank you Mark, yes watching birds is a huge part of my life. My grandfather gave me my first bird feeder when I was very young and I have had one ever since. 😊
I tried doing that here, but our neighbor complained about the bird droppings on his awnings. Now the bird droppings are all over our new SUV.
Yes, you can’t avoid bird drippings, I was filming the hummingbirds and caught them peeing a few times. They drink a lot of water and you can imagine they probably can’t hold on to much for very long. 😊
Soo beautiful pic!!😀
Thank you very much 😊
Thanks for the interesting info on this beautiful bird and the excellent photos, amazing they can fly so far without a feed, as I was led to believe they needed to feed constantly to maintain their heart rate.and energetic lifestyle, obviously this is not the case.
Yes, they work on gaining weight before they leave on the trip. I can’t imagine what they would like with a little weight gain. They are just so small.