Ruby-throated Hummingbird

It is that time of year right now when the hummingbirds are fattening up for their anual migration southwards. Up until 2 weeks ago we have had as many as 14-15 at one time, trying to feed out of a 6 staion sugar-water bottle. There is a lot of bickering but they all get a chance. (They also have to compete with bees and wasps). While we find their activities entertaining, to hummingbirds it is a matter of life and death.

We don't know how a hummingbird decides when it is time to leave. However, when the time is right, the bird takes off from here in the USA and heads toward its wintering grounds in southern Mexico and Central America...males first followed a few weeks later by the females.

Each bird travels alone. This means that a hummingbird hatched in the spring instinctively knows where it is going. However, whatever path it chooses for its first migration appears to be the one it will use its entire life.

Most ruby-throats raised in here in Georgia and elsewhere in the eastern US, fly across the Gulf of Mexico. The shortest distance across this broad expanse of water is approximately 500 miles. It is thought such a flight takes a ruby-throat 18-20 hours.

We are sad to see that they have already started to depart, but their return in the spring is eagerly anticipated. We will try to keep a little food out through the winter because there are always one or two that decide (maybe because of their old age) that they can't make that long flight.