The hummingbirds are coming, the hummingbirds are coming!
Have you ever seen a Ruby-throated hummingbird? I’m fascinated by them, and I’ve spent hours in my Maine garden photographing them.
Watch until the end, where a second hummingbird appears in the distance.
This video has been slowedHovering silently, they glide up and down, left to right, like a helicopter. Their wings beat 53 times in a single second. Having great color vision, they search for red and orange flowers and will feed from 1000 to 2000 a day! They need to eat every 10 to 15 minutes! To help with this, I put out feeders each year with a specially homemade sugar water, like the feeder you see in the video above. I have to clean it and refill it every three days, but it’s worth it to be able to watch them coming and going.
They also eat insects, sometimes stealing them from spider’s webs.
Their nest is the size of a thimble, their eggs the size of jellybeans.
In the fall, they fly from New England to Central America or Mexico. Here at my house in Maine, I usually see them come back around May 1st or so. Sometimes, that’s before our bushes and flowers have bloomed, so I always try to find some hearty potted, flowering plants for them to feed on. And of course, I put out one of my hummingbird feeders.
Male Ruby-throated HummingbirdI’m so looking forward to their arrival this year. And I was curious, since it’s such a mild winter, feeling like an early Spring, would they arrive sooner?
Here’s one way we can find out! Welcome to the 2020 Hummingbird Migration Tracker! Today, March 17th, the Ruby-throated hummingbirds have been sighted in Virginia. They are on their way!
