Ecology Ruby-throated
hummingbirds breed over much of eastern North America. See their range
map. Rufous
hummingbirds breed over much of western North America from the western
plains through Alaska. Ruby-throated
hummingbirds can be found in many habitats, from forest to streamside.
The one thing they always need is nectar or another very sweet liquid.
In early spring they find it at sapsucker drill holes--otherwise they
are virtually always found near flowering plants. Rufous hummingbirds are found in forested and brushy habitats. Q. What is the hummingbird's role in the ecosystem? By flying
from flower to flower, the hummingbird pollinates the plants it feeds
on. Some plants can only reproduce because of hummingbird pollination.
Some insects are eaten by hummingbirds, which in turn have been eaten
by small predators, including large insects, some fish, and small
hawks. Predators such as crows, jays, roadrunners, cats, and mice all eat baby hummers. Hummers have also been caught by dragonflies and praying mantises, caught in spiders' webs, snatched by frogs and fish, and stuck on thistles.Use binoculars to watch from a distance as much as possible so you don't "tip off' any predators. Nectar
from flowers, sap running from sapsucker drill holes, tiny insects,
and sugar water. Hummingbirds are BIG eaters. No animal on earth has a faster metabolism-roughly 100 times that of an elephant. Hummingbirds burn food so fast they often eat 1.5 to 3 times their body weight in food per day! In order to gather enough nectar, hummingbirds must visit hundreds of flowers every day. Just one day of cold temperatures or bad luck finding flowers can mean death. Q. What happens if a hummer doesn't have enough food? To conserve energy, it can go into a sleep-like state known as "torpor." During torpor, the tiny bird's body temperature can drop by 50 degrees, the heart rate can slow from 500 beats per minute to fewer than 50, and breathing may even stop for a period of time. A hummingbird uses as much as 50 times for energy when awake than when torpid, but a torpid hummer can't respond to emergencies. Q.
How long does it take for a hummer to come back from torpor to an
active state? Q. How do scientists learn where the hummingbirds from one state or province migrate for the winter? Scientists
study bird banding data in hopes of learning where hummers go. They
put thousands of numbered bands on hummer legs, but very few hummingbird
banders have ever found out what happens to birds they've banded.
It takes a long time to amass enough data for them to draw accurate
conclusions. Meanwhile, hummers may change some of their migration
patterns, making the research even more complicated. 1. Report
when your Hummingbird feeder is up. As soon as you place your hummingbird
feeder outside, report to Journey North. Now you're ready to watch
for your first hummers! Q.
What makes hummingbirds migrate? Males. Females follow a few days to a couple of weeks or so behind them. Q.
Do hummingbirds migrate on the backs of geese? Q. What do hummingbirds eat when getting ready for their migration? LOTS
of nectar and insects. No, hummers
are solitary migrants. However, when many are on the move in a good
migratory pathway, you may see many in a day--just like human commuters
may be traveling mostly alone, but there can still be a LOT of cars
on a highway at rush hour! Each
hummer must stop fairly frequently to feed, and since only one can
feed at a flower at a time, it's easier for them if they don't have
to be waiting for one another. Also, they have no real advantages
to flocking--they're so tiny that the eddies of air current their
flight produces break up by the tiniest breeze, so others can't follow
in their wake, and they are so tiny that most predators ignore them,
so they get no added security from more eyes to spot predators. Ruby-throats
winter in Central America from Mexico to Panama. At the northern extreme,
a few rufous hummers winter in southern and coastal California and
along the Gulf coast from southeastern Texas to Florida. Most winter
in Mexico. By day,
except in one situation: when ruby-throated hummingbirds light out
over the Gulf of Mexico, they are over water when night falls and
must keep on going until the reach the other side. They
time their return to the breeding grounds according to location. Birds
that live in the southern part of the US begin their return migration
as early as February. Birds that live further north in the East, or
in the inland mountains in the West, time their return to coincide
with the flowering of their food plants or sapsucker migration. By putting on a lot of fat--they may double their body weight. Q.
How long does hummer migration take? Usually
as sapsucker holes or flowering plants are first opening. After
fattening up, males start chasing away other hummers and doing their
flight display, in order to attract a female to their territory. Females
fatten up and then start nesting. Lack of food, windows, unexpected predators (hummers nesting in far northern forests may never have seen a snake in a tree before they reach the South, for example), getting caught in storms without shelter.
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