Well, we have about one month or so to take advantage of watching our only species of hummingbird east of the Mississippi River, the ruby-throated hummingbird.

With the shortening amount of daylight and the distance they need to travel, most of these little dynamos will soon be heading to Mexico and Central America where they can find food in the tropical warmth.

I find conflicting information, but it appears that there are at least 360 species of hummingbirds, and all in the Western Hemisphere. Fifteen of those species breed in the U.S. with nine vagrants that appear here regularly.

Our “ruby throat” is quite a traveler. Some of them live as far north as southern Canada and may fly thousands of miles to their winter home.

What I find even more amazing is that many of them chose the shortest distance to reach Central America by flying more than 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf. Some chose to travel along the Gulf Coast, along the Texas Coast, and then along the shores and coastal areas of Eastern Mexico.

Hummingbirds are so active that they need to eat their own weight in food each day. Most of that is the nectar they get from flowers. (or your feeders) They will also eat small insects, ants, and spiders.

When the young are in the nest, they do try to feed the young more insects so they have more protein in their diet. Keep in mind, most hummingbirds weigh slightly more than a penny.

With wings that beat about 80 times per second you may be able to realize how much food they need to sustain all that activity.

Most hummingbird species eat 3 to 7 calories a day. That is a huge amount of caloric intake. Put that in perspective, their 3 to 7 calorie diet would equate to an average human needing to consume 150,000 calories a day.

Unbelievable.

The ruby-throated hummingbirds lay two pea-sized eggs. The female is the nest builder, incubator, and food provider. Her nest interior is about the size of a thimble. The nest materials include plant down,(like thistle down), spider webs, some other plant fibers, and is usually “shingled” with tiny bits of lichens. Almost always the nest sits atop a branch of a deciduous tree and may almost be impossible to see from beneath it.

The nest materials allow the nest to actually stretch a little bit as the young get bigger. The growing nestlings actually need to sit facing away from each other the last few days in the nest. They have only one nest a year. The female incubates the eggs for about 14 to 16 days and about three weeks later they are able to leave the nest. (Note, for the first few days after hatching, the young cannot produce enough heat to stay warm, so the female has a hectic schedule of feeding for about 5 minutes of an hour and quickly returns to warm them.)

The young are born with very short bills, luckily for the female, since she feeds them a slurry of nectar/pollen and some insects she regurgitates into their hungry mouths. The nestling’s bills actually grow quite rapidly as they mature.

The “ruby throats” numbers have actually been in increasing slowly over the last 50 years. One species in the West, the rufous hummingbird, has been seeing a rapid population decline.

So, take advantage of our hummers while you can, they’ll soon be heading south; so, get out there.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Which migrates from our area first, the males or the females and this year’s young?

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: The nest in the photo from last week was an osprey nest. They are more likely to build atop a dead tree, a nest platform, or even microwave towers. Bald eagles generally build nests in or near the top of huge trees in the forks of the branches.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.