The Ruby Throated Hummingbird

"Readers will compare key traits of ruby-throated hummingbirds?their appearance, behavior, habitat, and life cycle?to traits of other birds."--Amazon.com.

Follow the ruby-throated hummingbird's journey to Mexico and Central America in the Marvelous Migrations series. Focused on 21st century content, engaging inquiry-based sidebars encourage young readers to think, create, guess, and ask questions. Book includes table of contents, glossary, index, author biography, and sidebars.

The wings of ruby-throated hummingbirds are incredible machines, beating nearly 53 times per second and strong enough to fly across the Gulf of Mexico in a single trip! Common in North America, these birds are a delight to observe as they zoom and hover in backyards and gardens. Learn more about ruby-throated hummingbirds in this brightly colored read!

"Irresistible to bird-watchers and nature lovers." -- Booklist, 4/1/98 "It is hard to categorize these books. They are detailed life histories, not quite monographs but far more than typical one-species books for general audiences. If they were larger, and hardback, they would be coffee-table books, too well-written and too informative to be merely pretty picture books. Whatever they should be called, they are successful and should be read. I look forward to others in the series." -- Eirik A. T. Blom Bird Watchers Digest, March/April 98

"The Ruby-throated Humming bird Archilochus colubris is the most common and widely distributed of the hummingbirds in Canada. Its minute size, temperament, and behaviour are fascinating, and its skillful flight and migration are amazing. All these things set it apart among birds"--p. [2].

In this invitingly-written book, June Osborne paints a fully detailed portrait of perhaps the best-known hummingbird in the United States, the ruby-throat. There is no mistaking a hummingbird. Even people who hardly know a robin from a sparrow recognize that flash of iridescent feathers and the distinctive hovering flight. So popular have “hummers” become that even casual birdwatchers now travel great distances to hummingbird hot spots to see masses of birds in their annual migrations. Drawing from her own birdwatching experiences, June Osborne offers an “up close and personal” look at a female ruby-throat building her nest and rearing young, as well as an account of a day in the life of a male ruby-throat and stories of the hummers’ migrations between their summer breeding grounds in the United States and Canada and their winter homes in Mexico and Central America. In addition to this life history, Osborne recounts early hummingbird sightings and tells how the bird received its common and scientific names. After an overview of hummingbirds’ distinctive ways of feeding, flying, and conserving energy, she offers a detailed description of the ruby-throat that will help you tell females from males, immature birds from adults, and ruby-throats from similar species. Osborne also takes you on a visit to the “Hummer/Bird Celebration!” at Rockport, reviews hummingbird banding programs, and explains how to attract hummingbirds to your yard or apartment balcony.

See what the ruby-throated hummingbird has in common with the rofous hummingbird. Learn what sets it apart from the turkey vulture. Readers will compare key traits of ruby-throated hummingbirds—their appearance, behavior, habitat, and life cycle—to traits of other birds. Charts and sidebars support key ideas and provide details. Through gathering information about similarities and differences, readers will make connections and draw conclusions about what makes this animal a bird and how birds are alike and different from each other.

The bestselling natural history of birds, lavishly illustrated with 600 colorphotos, is now available for the first time in flexi binding.