I went inside to find my new hummingbird feeder and to set out a fresh batch of sugar water for my smallest guests. The type of hummingbird in my neck of the woods, the Central foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, or Archilochus colubris.
The ruby-throat weighs 1/10 of an once and is 33/4 inches long. They have a long bill to fit into flowers, a green back with a whitish belly. The male has an iridescent red throat that can look black in some lights. The female has a whitish throat. There are sixteen species of hummingbirds in the United States, with only the ruby-throated in the East, and black-chinned, rufous, and Anna's hummingbirds west of the Mississippi River. Eight species of hummingbirds have been reported in Canada, with three being rare. Some hummingbirds you may find in Canada include the ruby-throated, the black-chinned, Costa's hummingbird, calliope, and the rufous hummingbird.
All hummingbirds can fly like helicopters, which is one of the reasons attracting them to your garden is so exciting. They can fly sixty miles/hour and endure 500 mile migrations. They have a high metabolism and need to eat a huge amount of food to fuel themselves. They love nectar. They can eat half their body weight in sugar every day. They will also eat spiders and small insects for proteins and fats.
How can we help feed our tiny friends and attract them to every year? I have found a combination of flowers and feeders helps bring the them back every summer. For a feeder, I prefer my simple glass bottle screwed into a plastic base with small holes every inch around the parameter or so, with a circular perch and little yellow petal-like shapes surrounding the holes. The plastic base is red.
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