Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)

One of the smallest birds in North America, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only hummingbird species that breeds in eastern North America. During fall migration, this tiny bird may fly up to 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico to reach its wintering grounds in the western Gulf coast and central America—then back again in the spring. Hummingbirds feed mostly on nectar, and can be helped by planting nectar-providing native plants, and by protecting them from cats and from collisions with window glass.

To learn more about ID, range, breeding, and voice, visit Cornell’s All About Birds

What Ruby-throated Hummingbirds Need	How Can We Help
Food and Water: Hummingbirds prefer nectar from red tubular flowers, with which they are thought to have co-evolved. Favored plants include jewelweed, columbine, trumpet creeper, wild bergamot, scarlet bee-balm, coral honeysuckle, cardinal flower, catchfly, and fire-pink. Hummingbirds are the pollinators for many of these plants. They use sap wells excavated by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in birch, tulip poplar, or red maple trees. Hummingbirds also eat small insects picked from the leaves or bark of trees or caught in mid-air.	Plant a hummingbird garden with native flowering plants, especially those tubular flowers listed in the left column. These plants produce nectar throughout their blooming stage as maintenance-free feeders. Avoid using pesticides in your flower garden, as this depletes the insect supply for hummingbirds and other birds, and can poison birds. Add a mister to your birdbath. Hummingbirds love them and will perform acrobatics in them. Put up and maintain a hummingbird feeder filled with fresh uncolored sugar water (one part sugar to four parts water). Since this mixture can spoil rapidly in hot weather, feeders should be cleaned thoroughly (without soap, which can sicken birds) and refilled every two to three days when the temperature rises. If not kept clean the black mold that develops could be deadly.
Shelter: Hummingbirds sleep and roost on sheltered tree branches.	Provide native landscape trees for roost sites.
Nesting: Hummingbirds breed in mixed woodlands and eastern deciduous forest, including yards, gardens, and orchards. Nests are made of thistle or dandelion down woven together with spider webs and decorated on the outside with bits of lichen. They are usually built on the upper side of a branch, 15 to 20 feet up in trees, near the end of hanging branches sheltered from above by leaves.	Plant native shade trees to provide nesting sites for hummingbirds. Protect spiders (the source of their nest material) from pesticides.
Other Threats: These tiny birds are susceptible to predation by house cats, and to collisions with plate glass windows. Praying mantis have been known to snare hummingbirds.	Keep cats indoors. Screen windows or make them visible so hummingbirds can avoid colliding with them. Keep feeders away from leafy foliage that can hide predators.