Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the common breeding hummingbird of the eastern United States and southern Canada. Its feathers are tiny and specialized, with iridescent green covering the crown and back and, in males, a dazzling ruby-red throat patch called a gorget that can appear dull black when not catching direct light. Because of the species' small size, individual feathers are minute and delicate, most often found near feeders, gardens, or flowering plants.

Size and Shape

Hummingbird feathers are extremely small, often only a centimeter or two, with narrow, stiff flight feathers adapted for rapid wingbeats and body feathers that are dense and scale-like.

Color and Pattern

• Crown and back feathers: iridescent green, shifting with light angle
• Male throat (gorget) feathers: brilliant iridescent red, appearing black without direct light
• Underparts: whitish to pale gray
• Female throat feathers: plain whitish, lacking the male's iridescent patch

Distinguishing from Similar Species

Ruby-throated Hummingbird feathers are best distinguished from other eastern hummingbird species by range, since it is the only regularly breeding species across most of the eastern half of the continent. Compared to western species like Black-chinned or Anna's Hummingbird, the male's gorget color when caught in good light is a purer, saturated red rather than the more purple or magenta-pink male gorgets of some western species.

Adult males show an iridescent green back and crown with a brilliant red gorget and whitish underparts; adult females lack the red gorget, showing a plain whitish throat and slightly duller green upperparts. Juveniles resemble females, and young males gradually acquire gorget feathers through their first year. Hummingbirds undergo a complete molt on their wintering grounds, replacing feathers over an extended period distinct from the breeding-season molt pattern of most songbirds.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds breed across the eastern United States and southern Canada, occupying gardens, woodland edges, meadows, and forest clearings with abundant flowering plants. The species is strongly migratory, wintering primarily in Mexico and Central America, with some individuals making a long nonstop flight across the Gulf of Mexico during migration.

This species feeds on nectar from tubular flowers and readily visits sugar-water feeders, supplementing its diet with small insects and spiders for protein. Females build a tiny cup nest of plant down bound with spider silk, camouflaged with lichen, and raise young without assistance from males. Calls include soft chip notes, and males perform dramatic U-shaped or pendulum display flights to attract mates. Ruby-throats are highly territorial at feeding sites, often chasing off other hummingbirds despite their tiny size.