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Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris Family: Trochilidae (Hummingbirds)  |
Description: Iridescent (shiny) green-blue above, dull white below. They have been reported to "challenge bumblebees" for flower nectar, which they drink with the help of their long bill and their slender straw-like tongue. The male has a reflective ruby red throat and a black shallow-forked tail. The female has a white streaked throat and a fan-shaped tail with a white spotted tip. Small and fast moving, some members of the hummingbird family are the tiniest feathered creatures in the world. Hyperactive in daytime, they must eat constantly to stay alive. Yet they weigh less than a nickel (only five grams or 1/5 ounce). At night, or when they're in danger of freezing or starving to death they can "chill out" or enter a torpor state to reduce their metabolism and conserve their energy - like a kind of temporary hibernation. Their heartbeat drops to 1/50 the normal rate. This can last from 8 - 14 hours. While in a torpor state they are defenseless and motionless. Hummingbirds beat their wings 50 - 75 times per second. They are the only bird that flies backward. They can also fly forward, stop, and hover. They may hover up to a person to get a closer look at colorful clothing. |
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Size: 3 - 4 inches (measure the beak to body ratio) Diet: Flower nectar, tree sap, insects Habitat: Gardens, parks, open woodlands, mixed woods, orchards, shade trees, boggy areas. Voice: They do not sing, but they do make a high short twitter sound. |
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Nesting: The female alone builds a small but sturdy shelled nest of fibers and plant down. These have cushioned insides bound with strong sticky spiderweb silk. Usually they're found attached to small branches, and they look like a mossy knob on a branch. The female sometimes lays her one of possibly 2 broods (with about 2 eggs per brood), before the nest is even completed. Her eggs, which are smaller than most coffee beans, take about 16 days to incubate. In general, smaller eggs incubate faster than larger eggs. But in the Hummingbird's case, the female has to spend so much time out of the nest feeding herself that she can't incubate her eggs full time. Range: (May - September) This is the only Hummingbird found east of the Mississippi River. They migrate over 2,000 miles to find their winter homes, including a 26 hour non-stop flight over the Gulf of Mexico. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds winter throughout Mexico and Central America where they potentially face competition from dozens of resident hummingbird species. In western Mexico in winter, Ruby-throats share pine-oak-fir forests with resident birds. Hummers may stop during migration at feeding sites for as long as twenty days, where they can increase their body weight by 8 percent per day.
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