Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The ruby-throated hummingbird is a tiny, jewel-bright bird that lives in gardens, forests, and orchards across the eastern side of North America. It is metallic green on top and pale underneath, and the grown-up male has a shining ruby-red throat that flashes in the sunlight.

The most amazing thing about a hummingbird is the way it flies. It beats its wings so fast, around fifty times a second, that they look like a blur and make a gentle humming sound. This lets the bird hover in one spot in the air, and it can even fly backwards, which almost no other bird can do.

Hummingbirds love to drink nectar, the sweet juice inside flowers. They hover in front of a bloom and sip the nectar with their long, thin tongue. They especially like red, orange, and pink tube-shaped flowers. They also snap up tiny insects and spiders, which give them the protein they need to stay strong.

Because their bodies work so hard and so fast, hummingbirds need to eat very often, visiting hundreds of flowers every day. They are also brave and busy, often chasing other hummingbirds away from a favourite patch of flowers or a garden feeder.

When the weather turns cold, ruby-throated hummingbirds travel a very long way to spend the winter somewhere warm, in Mexico and Central America. Some of them fly all the way across the Gulf of Mexico without stopping, an incredible journey for a bird so small. There are many millions of them, and they are one of the most common hummingbirds in North America.