Ruby-throated Hummingbird Family
Many of you know by now that I try my very best to have my own style of photography and seek out the most unusual shots that I can. However I am always mindful of staying true to nature and wildlife photography as a classic art form. Living here in Townsend I am not able to put out bird feeders in any form due to the large Black Bear population. You would think that this would hurt my chances of seeing and photographing many bird species; however, this is not the case. We are fortunate to own 7 wooded lots and a one acre field. We have most varieties of low elevation Smoky Mountain Wildflowers on our land. We also have many of the Smoky Mountain blooming shrubs and trees including Flamed Azaleas. Spring of 2018 we had a great Warbler migration happen in our front yard. During the 2018 Fall migration we were fortunate to have many Orioles, Grosbeaks and Waxwings in our Dogwood trees.
About 2 weeks ago we noticed that a Hummingbird was hanging around our home. Just a short time later my wife saw the hummer land in our front Maple tree and then hop into a nest. Just a few days after that I was able to witness her feeding chicks in the nest, but I only saw the beaks when feeding. Last night I was finally able to photograph the chicks heads above the top of the nest and today I got some shots of momma feeding them again. I also made the mistake of leaving my garage door open yesterday afternoon and yup, you guessed it, a Black Bear wandered in. It knocked over my Rubbermaid trash can and grabbed a bag before heading back up the mountain behind our home. (As a side note, we have our own Black Bear cave just behind our house.)
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the only hummers East of the Mississippi River except for a few wanderers of other species. They migrate a total of about 1000 miles round trip. They leave their wintering grounds of Central America and Mexico at the end of February and arrive in the Smoky Mountains around April 1st. Others sometimes winter in South Florida and the Southern coastal states and migrate to Northern USA and Canada. They breed in June and July and start leaving the area around the September 1st time frame. When migrating they can travel 20 miles per day. They feed in the mornings adding 25% of their body weight. They travel during the day so that they can continue to feed on the nectar of their favorite red and orange flowers. Their wings beat up to 80 times per second and their hearts beat over 1200 times per minute.
After breeding the female builds a nest usually 10-20 feet off the ground. It builds it on top of a descending small branch. It is made of Thistle and Dandelion down held together by spider web and is a cup shape usually 2″ across and 1″ deep. The outside of the nest is camouflaged by lichen and moss and is difficult to see by animals and humans alike. The nest takes about a week to build and the female forms the walls between her bill and neck.
The female lays between 1-3 white eggs that weigh only 1/2 gram or 1/50th of an ounce. She only weighs about 3.5 grams herself and the male weighs just 3 grams. The incubation takes 2 weeks and that is followed by a 3 week nesting period. The chicks are born almost completely naked with just a row of feathers down their back. Adults feed mostly on nectar but the mother targets insects during this time because they are rich in proteins which are important for the chicks development. They target mosquitos, gnats and small bees. They sometimes will take spiders but would rather raid spider webs of their prey.
