The
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Introduction
The Ruby-Throat spends most of it's time around gardens, wood edges, streams and parks, because this is where they can find flowers most easily. In the Spring the male's territory is usually about 1/10 of a hectare. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is an almost entirely nectar eating bird, but also eats bugs, insects, small spiders and sap from the sapsucker when holes have been drilled in it. They prefer flower nectar, but when it isn't available they eat whatever is close and they are able to catch. The Ruby-throat eats one half of its body weight each day, because of its incredible wing speeds it burns food off very quickly. They only weigh about the same as two and a half paper clips (which is about one and a half grams) Mainly bugs, insects and small spiders eat plants and sometimes smaller insects and they in turn eat mostly trees, shrubs, bushes and other kinds of plants. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird does not have very many predators, so in a way it is at the top of its small food chain. They mainly eat nectar and when it is necessary they will use bugs and insects as a back up food supply. In turn nectar comes from flowers. Bugs and insect depend on plants and vegetation and also smaller insects. Which in turn all depend on plants, water and sun light. (Please turn the page to see the table.) Cold and freezing temperatures mean that the Ruby-throats food supply becomes scares. The flowers and insects that they depend on either die or find another place that they could use for their shelter. When the photoperiod becomes longer the Ruby-throat knows that it is time for it to fly back to its summering ground. The photoperiod also tells the flowers to start shooting out of the ground and the insects that it is time for the new babies to hatch. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird spends many hours of the day looking for food. They slurp nectar with their long slender beak from the flowers that they find. It can also catch insects on the wing or on the ground and swallows them whole. Cold temperatures really affect how the Ruby-throat eats, because all of the plants and insects that they depend on for food aren't there for them anymore. They can't live more than a couple of hour in the cold weather without food, so it is very important for then to have a dependable food source. Physiology The Ruby-throated
Hummingbird loves the sweet flower nectar that comes from different flowers
including daisies, tulips and daffodils, to name a few. The ones that
were named are usually about the biggest flowers that they visit. This
is mainly do to the size and weight of their tiny bodies. Hummingbird
gardens are beginning to grow in popularity and they are making the Ruby-throats
migration easier. They consist of many different flowers, often flowers
that the gardener has chosen and think that will look good in the spot
that they have chosen. Usually many varieties are chosen, because there
are so many flowers to chose from. A Ruby-throated
Hummingbird nest is mainly made out of plant down, bud scales, covered
with lichens, bound with spiders' silk and placed on a small horizontal
limb which is approximately three to six metres off the ground. The nest
is about two and a half centimetres deep and only about five centimetres
wide (just big enough for the mother and little eggs).
Conclusion They migrate North again in the Spring, because they need to mate and lay their eggs, so that the next generation of Ruby-throats can be ready for the long trip to Mexico in the fall. Some scientists think that they go back to where they were born, so that they can mate. They have to go back to mate, because Ontario's average summer temperature is about 19' Celsius which is warmer than Mexico's average summer temperature, so it is very important for them to come back to North Eastern North America in the Spring. In 1996,
the first Ruby-throat spotted in Ontario was seen on 5/19, the first in
1997 was seen on 5/2 and in 1998 the first seen was on 5/8. By using the
data that has been collected from other years, we can make a fairly accurate
guess on when we will see our first Ruby-throat. The average date that
the first Ruby-throated hummingbird arrives in Ontario, is around the
sixth of May, so that has been the date predicted.
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