Ruby Throated Hummingbird By Grayson Lewis Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Ruby Throated Hummingbirds I observed these fascinating creatures around noon, on August 6th 2009, on my front porch, which overlooks my front yard. Their habitat is my yard and the forest that surrounds my house, which is on a knoll next to my street.

A Male hovers in mid-air… While a Female floats on the wind…

One female tries to feed, while the other waits for a landing space.

Two females arguing about who will drink next.

A female bird eating “fast-food”.

A female hides behind a post. This male likes to eat the most.

Hummingbirds are some of the most interesting creatures I have ever seen. They are the only birds I know of that can hover in mid-air. They seem to form packs, with only one or two males and several females. The females will try to fight each other for access to the feeder. Though they like the feeder they seem to prefer honeysuckles, and other natural sugars. They are apparently not afraid of humans, flying onto my front porch, and even within one foot of my face. This is likely due to the fact that they are much faster then humans using conventional methods to capture them. I was so fascinated by these creatures, that I did additional research on them. Some facts I learned were that hummingbirds can beat their wings up to 90 times per second depending on species! I also learned that only males have the ruby red throat (though some females can have a pink throat)! One of the most frustrating things about hummingbirds is that they are very hard to photograph, due to their quick speed, but it did help that they’re not very afraid of humans. Overall, this was a very enjoyable project , and helped open my eyes to nature.