Steve’s Bird Of The Day #59.

Posted on April 21, 2021 by

34 Comments

Hi everyone and welcome back to part 2 of our look at the “ruby-throated hummingbird”. Yesterday we saw the male and today in the above pic is the female. She does not have the ruby colored throat but instead it’s a grayish white like her chest and stomach area. She arrives a little later than the male and when she arrives he puts on a very elaborate dance in the air courtship display and if she accepts him, they mate and he leaves. She then selects a nesting site and constructs a tiny nest on top of a sturdy branch and makes it look like just a bump on the branch. She uses spider web and plant down to construct the nest and secures it to the branch with sticky spider silk. Then she attaches lichen to the outside of the nest to camouflage it. She uses her body to smoothly shape the interior of the nest and lays 1 to 3 eggs. She leaves the nest only for brief periods to feed. Hummingbirds eat the nectar from flowers and they prefer flowers that are red or orange, then pink or yellow and generally prefer tubular flowers for feeding. They are easily attracted to feeders like the one shown in my pics. They also eat a large number of small insects including mosquitoes and spiders as well. An important early season food source for them is the sap from trees provided by the sapsuckers. They will often follow a sapsucker around to find all the feeding spots. We are at the northernmost range for the ruby-throated hummingbird in this area.

This shows, though rather poorly, the figure 8 design of their wing flapping.

I hope you have enjoyed our little look at this fascinating tiny bird. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.

Category: Beauty, Birds, Country Pleasures, Fun, Happiness, Little Things, Nature, Photos, Positive, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , ,

34 Comments on “Steve’s Bird Of The Day #59.”

  3. It’s a tiny and flash like bird.. like the comis flash that travels fast, this bird is like that. Never seen it close. I wonder how birds actually go out and come back without gps 🤔 I get confused a lot about my way to home, I have tried 100’s of route and never remembers one at Ease😐🙄 memory fault 😼

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    • Yep, these birds are so tiny, but they sure can travel fast when they want to! Faster than other birds.🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️ And it’s so amazing how they fly so fast like that and then suddenly they stop. No slowing down, just stop!😳 Bad memory already?🤔 Wait until you hit 40!😂😹

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  5. Nicely enjoyed the Hamming bird story 🌹🙏👍🏼 this small colourful bird can see our compounds, last year this two Hamming bird made nest in front of my Palm free, and
    Lay 2 eggs and 1 bird sit always in the nest inside . Then the small birds they bring food
    And make them to eat, very interesting. Time come to fly one day the small two flew away.
    Still got my computer the next photo, I saved ! I’m so happy to read Bird Of The Day 👌🌹🙏

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