Rfalconcam Forum

We've been really entertained the last couple weeks by several Hummers frequenting our feeder and here's a few pics I've taken of them.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=836216892213%3A2127099699 (http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=836216892213%3A2127099699)

I'm jealous again. I have not seen any hummers at my feeders, just bees sucking up the syrup. Thanks.

What's that one with the dark head??? So cute, great pics, thanks!!!

Glad to share, Bonnie, and sorry you don't have any this year.  They've been really active the past couple weeks-very entertaining especially when they fight over the feeder!

They're all Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.  The first pic is a male-they have the red throats and the 3rd pic is a female-no red throat.

OH OK, looked a bit dark in the head. Very nice Ruby's!!  :clap:

How lucky you are ! ! ! ! ! :thumbsup:

Donna, the color in the ruby-throat comes from iridescence, so when the light is not hitting the throat patch at the right angle, it just looks black.  I find it entertaining to watch one at my feeder who may be just perched, hanging out, and is at an angle where he turns his head from side to side watching for any possible interlopers, the throat patch will alternate from black to red as he turns his head.

Here's a blurb from the Web Site:  The Journey North (it's the site I use to figure out when to hang my hummingbird feeder).  It's mostly geared toward educators and the kids they educate, but it has some good information.  http://www.learner.org/jnorth/ (http://www.learner.org/jnorth/)

Q. What causes a hummer's colors to have a metallic sheen?

The brilliant, iridescent colors of hummingbird plumage are caused by the refraction of incident light by the structures of certain feathers. Like any diffraction grating or prism, these structures split light into its component colors, and only certain frequencies are refracted back to your eyes. The apparent color of any particular part of a feather depends upon the distance between the microscopic ridges in its gridlike structure. The resulting colors are much more vivid and iridescent than those of birds with only pigmented feathers. Not all hummer colors are due to feather structure, however; the duller, rusty browns of Allen's and Rufous Hummingbirds come from pigmentation. Iridescent hummingbird colors actually result from a combination of refraction and pigmentation, since the diffraction structures themselves are made of melanin, a pigment.

Thanks for sharing; I love this time of year when migration is in full swing and the adult males are passing through.  We normally have a single female around all summer (early May onwards), but it's nice to see the migrants fighting the hummingbird wars, except that it means summer's coming to an end.  :(

At this latitude we'll usually see them through the end of September, and last year we actually had one visit in early October, but it's still too bad when it ends.

Patti