One of the most welcome visitors to our garden is the Hummingbird. They are such a delight to see and are fascinating creatures with their speed, high energy, diminutive size and colourful markings. They will venture very close to the house and even with people around, will fly to window boxes and the feeders set up for them each spring.
This year I decided to make my own nectar for the feeders to avoid any chemicals like food colouring in the food from the stores. I boiled up one part sugar to four parts water to make my syrup, placed it inside the feeders and put them in place outside. We seemed to be waiting days before any sign of the first hummingbirds of the spring arrived, but soon the first one showed up.
It is so exciting to see them return and know that they will be around all summer. I began to wonder it they would ever feed from my feeders and that they did not like my homemade food, because they spent a couple of days just flying up to the feeders and taking a closer look and then flying away again. I was about to refill them with the store bought food that I had used the year before, when I noticed one fly up to the feeder and take a sip. I was not satisfied that they were actually taking my food until after a few days the level of syrup in the feeder had dropped.
I believe that it is the Ruby-throats that are visiting my feeders, both male and female. The males are more colourful than the females with the ruby throats. Here is a description of their plumage.
Adult male: Emerald green back, iridescent ruby red gorget (throat) that may appear black under some lighting conditions, gray flanks, forked tail with no white. Smaller than the female.
Adult female: Emerald green back, white breast and throat, rounded tail with white tips. Larger than the male, with longer bill.
The average length of this hummingbird is 3.5 inches and they can reach flight speeds up to 68 mph (101 kph) and it is thought that Ruby-throats live as long as 12 years, but the average is probably 3-5 years. Ruby-throats breed throughout eastern to midwestern North America, from southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Most winter in Mexico, Central America, and on Caribbean islands, although a few remain in the Gulf states and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
Most researchers accept a remarkable non-stop crossing of the Gulf, taking 18-20 hours. They arrive at the coast in late February or early March, and follow the development of spring flowers northward. They arrived here this year around the end of May. By mid-November the fall migration is essentially completed throughout North America.
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