We see typically about six Ruby Throated Hummingbirds in our yard over the Summer.  The males show up first between May 5th-9th, a week or two later the females show up. The males are the first to leave as well, and they all are gone by September 21st.

We know they are the same adult older pair that show up because one year we were late in putting a feeder up on a window that they liked, and the male showed up and kept making a ruckus and flying at the spot where the feeder was supposed to be until I went inside and prepared the nectar and put the feeder out on the spot on the window as the previous year.  He was happy after that.

Here you get a sense of the hummingbird’s beak opening up.

 

Here you get to see the male’s tongue sticking out. I read that it is not a straw as most people think it is, but is like a channel that helps them slurp nectar from the flowers and feeders.

Hummer on the Basil flowers.

The tomato cages are a favorite hang out and lookout point.  It is also the best place for them to stand on a rainy hot day.  They will flap their wings, puff themselves up and dance back and forth trying to bathe with the rain.

Sometimes, they pause from their flying around looking for nectar and just sit and look around at what’s going on in the yard– or come close enough to see what I’m doing.

 

Resting on a leaf rake tine!