Home › Birds A–Z › Ruby-throated Hummingbird

A tiny, glittering green hummingbird; the male flashes an iridescent ruby-red throat.

How to spot it

A tiny bird only about 7–9 cm long, metallic green above and pale below. The male has an iridescent ruby-red throat that can look black until it turns to catch the light.

Where it lives

The common hummingbird of eastern North America — gardens, woodland edges and anywhere with tubular flowers or nectar feeders. It winters in Central America, crossing the Gulf of Mexico on the way.

What it eats

Flower nectar and small insects and spiders. It hovers on wings that beat around 50 times a second, and can fly straight backwards.

Song & behaviour

Not a singer — it makes thin, squeaky chips and a hum of wingbeats. Males are pugnacious, chasing rivals off a favoured patch of flowers.

Nesting

The female alone builds a thimble-sized cup of plant down bound with spider silk and shingled with lichen, and raises the young without the male.

← Back to all birds