Ruby Throated Humming Bird

by Stephanie

Did you know that most birds have three kinds of feathers? The three feathers most birds have are the flight feather, the down feather and the contour feather. All birds are also vertebrates and lay hard shelled eggs. Most birds have hollow bones so it makes flight easier for them.

 Speaking of birds the ruby throated humming bird is a good bird to study about. A field mark of the ruby throated humming bird is its fiery red throat and its green back. the size of the ruby throated humming bird is 3.5 inches. Can you believe that the ruby throated humming bird is only 3.1 grams! The wing beat is 40 to 80 per second. The amazing wingspan is 2,000 flaps per second. This humming bird makes a neat sound like a hum.

Did you know that the ruby throated humming bird lives in the northern United States and Canada? It is the only humming bird regularly found  east of the Rocky Mountains. In the summer  the humming bird is found in woodlands and gardens from Texas to Florida. Most of the ruby throated humming birds migrate across the Golf of Mexico. It takes 18 to 24 hours for the humming birds to fly across. They arrive on the U.S. gulf coast in late February or early March. The ruby throated humming bird's nest is as low as 5 inches, but normally about 18 to 20 inches. Most nests are found in pine trees on pencil sized down turned limbs. The nest is made of  dandelions, fibers, and thistle. The nests are the size of a English walnut. Eggs are very interesting part of the humming bird. The female lays two white eggs about the size of a black eyed pea. They are laid 2 to 3 days apart. It takes 12 to 14 days for the eggs to hatch.

The humming bird  eats lots of food like flower nectar, small soft bodied insects, fruit flies, mosquitoes, aphids, small spiders, and insect eggs.

The male ruby throated humming bird tries to attract the female humming bird by swooping back and forth with its wings buzzing and making high pitched calls. Some enemies of the humming bird is domestic cats, small hawks, squirrels, praying mantises, and other birds.

So in conclusion the ruby throated humming bird is a really neat bird to study about.