As we write this, Max has finally returned. That’s our name for the ruby-throated hummingbird who has visited our backyard daily each summer since 2014.
How do we know the hummingbird who came back this year is the same bird who was here last year? Well, we would know if a Maxine had showed up instead of a Max. The male ruby-throat sports a ruby red gorget, like a red bandana folded into a triangle and worn around the neck like a cowboy in a western movie. The female has a whitish throat but no bandana. In the right light, both sexes’ color mix includes an iridescent emerald green. These birds are truly live flying jewels.
Because hummingbirds do return yearly to the same spot, “Max” could indeed “be the same dude as the previous dude from the prior year,” says city ornithologist Juliet Berger. The rule of thumb is to hang out a hummingbird feeder on Tax Day, April 15. We did so, even though ruby-throats typically arrive here later. We didn’t want Max to return and, not finding our feeder, pass us over for the summer.
Berger says ruby-throats will feed all day, resting at night. And indeed Max had a route, sampling other nectar sources but often returning to our feeder several times an hour. Quite feisty, he’d chase away any other hummingbird, male or female, he found there.
These little birds overwinter in Mexico or Central America, migrating alone, not in flocks. About half come up over the Gulf of Mexico–an incredible feat for a three-and-a-half-inch-long bird. It’s not an easy journey, and Berger says “migration mortality” takes its toll. So we realize that this summer may be Max’s last with us. Though some live longer, hummingbirds’ average life span is just three or four years.
For those who cannot hang out a feeder, Matthaei Botanical Gardens, particularly the Gateway Garden, seems to have hummingbirds every summer. Berger also suggests the hummingbird and butterfly garden at Gallup Park, a short walk from the canoe livery. Butterflies and hummingbirds feed on some of the same flowers.
Hummingbirds’ wings beat fifty or more times or more a second, enabling them to hover, fly backwards, and even fly upside down. Our own exotic, they cannot be found outside the Americas. Ruby-throats are the only species normally seen in Michigan and the only one that breeds here.
Berger says hummingbird nests are constructed of spider webs with lichen as camouflage. They look like little knots on deciduous trees and stretch as the chicks grow.
A final interesting fact is that hummingbirds do not survive on nectar alone: for protein, they eat spiders and small insects. Berger says they’ll even “hawk,” taking insects in midflight like birds of prey. It turns out that these sweet little things are meat and potatoes guys after all.
