A hummingbird on a cardinal flower in our garden,.

A few photos of a young male Ruby Throated Hummingbird sporting his first few ruby feathers in his throat

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have many skeletal and flight muscle adaptations which allow the bird great agility in flight. Muscles make up 25-30% of their body weight, and they have long, bladelike wings that, unlike the wings of other birds, connect to the body only from the shoulder joint. This adaptation allows the wing to rotate almost 180°, enabling the bird to fly not only forward but also straight up and down, sideways, and backwards, and to hover in front of flowers as it feeds on nectar and insects.

During hovering, ruby-throated hummingbird wings beat 55x/sec, 61x/sec when moving backwards, and at least 75x/sec when moving forward.

On Guard

Ruby-throated Hummingbird building a nest.

Flyers enjoying the nectar

From my garden July 2021

Very challenging. It took about 30 shots to get a few keepers. This is the best one. Would have been nice to have the flower in the shot but hey lucky to have the eye in focus;-)

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have many skeletal and flight muscle adaptations which allow the bird great agility in flight. Muscles make up 25-30% of their body weight, and they have long, bladelike wings that, unlike the wings of other birds, connect to the body only from the shoulder joint. This adaptation allows the wing to rotate almost 180°, enabling the bird to fly not only forward but also straight up and down, sideways, and backwards, and to hover in front of flowers as it feeds on nectar and insects.

During hovering, ruby-throated hummingbird wings beat 55x/sec, 61x/sec when moving backwards, and at least 75x/sec when moving forward.

I'm really beginning to wonder why we still have hummingbirds? I read they usually leave our area the middle of September so maybe they'll get going this weekend. I'm still enjoying them but want them to leave here before the cold weather hits.

2 females enjoy sipping from opposite sides of the feeder.

"Ruby Throated Hummingbirds"Male

Approach shot

Edwin Warner Park - July 12, 2018

Ruby Throated Hummingbird up close and personal

Ruby Throated Hummingbird with no tail. 10/12/11 Houston, Texas

"Ruby Throated Hummingbirds" Male

Took this on the morning of 9/5/19. I love watching these amazing birds!

More photos of Ruby Throated hummingbirds in the garden enjoying the dog days of summer and stopping by the feeder often for a sip of nectar. Mostly females in this set.

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we have four hummingbird feeders outside of work, so I tried to snap some photos of them.

This is the adult male hummingbird, but still quite young. He should be developing the ruby throat soon!

Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird

We have 3 this year in the garden. Most of the time they spend dive bombing each other- occasionally they rest hiding in the bushes, or eat from the flowers. Feisty little things.

This female ruby throated hummingbird is enjoying a late evening snack washed in the golden light of sunset. Unfortunately there was some tall grass partially obscuring the lens - hence the obscured image on the left side. At first I was disappointed by this, but now I think it adds to the overall image.

The male ruby throated hummingbird. The sun isn't hitting his throat in the right direction to show the red.

Female ruby-throated hummingbird on firebush, Clear Lake City, Texas

All of my hummingbirds are looking a little scruffy right now! But I still love them. They have seen me with some pretty bad morning looks and they don't mind! lol

This is the first Hummingbird I have seen this year. Two of them were fighting over rights to the nectar feeder in my yard.

Show up and shoot

Ruby Throated Hummingbird