NL·0756Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Archilochus colubris
- Family
- Trochilidae
- Native to
- Breeds in eastern North America; winters in Mexico and Central America
- Habitat
- Deciduous forest, Woodland edge, Gardens
On eBird ↗
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Live sightings near you, the range map, bar charts of when it is seen, and Macaulay Library photos and recordings.
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Archilochus colubris
Also calledColibrí garganta de rubí (Spanish) · Colibri à gorge rubis (French) · Huitzilin (Nahuatl, hummingbird)
The only hummingbird that breeds widely in eastern North America. Weighing about 3 g, many cross the Gulf of Mexico nonstop, roughly 800 km, each spring and autumn.
The ruby-throated hummingbird is a species of hummingbird that generally spends the winter in Central America, Mexico, and Florida, and migrates to Canada and other parts of Eastern North America for the summer to breed. It is the most common hummingbird in eastern North America, having population estimates of about 35 million in 2021. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iFlies nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico, nearly doubling its weight in fat beforehand
- iiBeats wings around 50–80 times per second and can hover and fly backwards
- iiiEnters nightly torpor, dropping body temperature to save energy
- ivPollinates tubular red flowers such as trumpet creeper and cardinal flower
In the field
Field marks
- aTiny hummingbird with bright emerald back
- bMale has a glowing ruby-red throat that can look black in poor light
- cFemale has a white throat and white-tipped tail feathers
- dForked dark tail in males
- Voice
- Soft, rapid 'chew' chips and squeaky chatter; male wings make a high hum
- Not to be confused with
- Black-chinned hummingbird (mainly western) male has a black chin with a narrow violet band; females of the two are very hard to separate. Rufous hummingbird is orange.
- Where to see it
- Garden feeders across eastern North America; spring migrants on the Texas coast, e.g. High Island
- When
- Summer visitor Apr–Sep in the east; winters in Mexico and Central America
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Life & habits
- Diet
- Nectar, plus small insects and spiders
- Habitat
- Open woodland, forest edges, gardens
- Size
- 7–9 cm; ~3 g
- Lifespan
- Typically 3–5 years; record over 9 years
Males perform U-shaped pendulum display dives in front of perched females.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Breeds in eastern North America; winters in Mexico and Central America
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Woodcuts and engravings matched from the Source Library’s scanned books by name. Plates marked “relative” show a close kin rather than this exact species. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Archilochus colubris in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
To the Aztecs, hummingbirds were linked with Huitzilopochtli, whose name means 'hummingbird of the south', and fallen warriors were thought to return as hummingbirds.
Curiosity
Its heart can beat over 1,200 times a minute in flight.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 6432.