Ruby-throated hummingbirds: “Glittering fragments of a rainbow” John J. Audubon
Female hummingbird.
Photo credit: Gene Rochester
Do you love hummingbirds? In the spring, ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) return from their winter vacation in Mexico and Central America to breed in North America. These tiny birds, which weigh about the same as a penny, make an incredible journey of over 2000 miles, often facing high winds, storms, building collisions and other dangers. An average day’s flight is an astonishing 23 miles, but some birds fly 500 miles non-stop over the Gulf of Mexico! If you want to help scientists document the movement north of these feisty birds, report your sightings to Journey North. The ruby-throated males arrive first, towards the end of March, followed by the white-throated females a week later. Other hummingbirds have been seen in South Carolina, but this is the most common resident.
Hummingbirds are indeed nature’s athletes and acrobats. These tiny birds fly between 30 and 60 miles per hour, can turn on a dime and instantly stop in flight. They can keep their heads stationary to sip nectar while flapping their wings between 50 and 200 times a second. Engineers seeking solutions to real-world problems have been drawn to the agility and flight patterns of the hummingbird. One innovative company uses hummingbird-inspired rotors to power medicine-delivering drones in Rwanda. View an incredibly informative and inspiring video about this project here. This is only one of several biomimicry projects drawing on the aerial agility of hummingbirds.
The hummingbirds’ return coincides with the blooming of some native plants, which feature some of their favorite things: red-colored, tubular-shaped flowers with lots of nectar. The red buckeye (Aesculus pavia) is beginning to flower throughout the South Carolina Botanical Garden, as is our native coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirons). Incredibly, the hummingbird’s metabolism is so high that they need to feed every 10 -15 minutes and to accomplish this, they need to visit over a thousand flowers daily. Hummingbird feeders are one way to satiate this appetite, but planting a garden with natives is healthier for them. Visit the HGIC website to discover many other plants that will attract hummingbirds to your garden and how to properly maintain a hummingbird feeder.
For a free guide to gardening for hummingbirds: https://tinyurl.com/2vuh6x6y
Visit here for a selection of hummingbird coloring sheets: https://tinyurl.com/4z76zbzz
Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia).
Sue Watts, ©2024, SC Botanical Gardens, Clemson University
Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirons).
Sue Watts, ©2024, SC Botanical Gardens, Clemson University
Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis).
Sue Watts, ©2024, SC Botanical Gardens, Clemson University
