Today's Homestead Visitors: Introducing the Rufous Hummingbird!
- Melissa Roy-Hiller
- Apr 22
- 1 min read
Updated: Apr 22
Meet Rufous, the hummingbird! He's an interesting creature!
They never fail to entertain, and they definitely enliven any yard that they choose to take up residence in! It is a delight to have them return, year after year -- and from what I've read, they have great memories and know where to find their 'regular feeding stations' along their annual migratory routes.
One of the feistiest hummingbird in North America. The brilliant orange male and the green-and-orange female Rufous Hummingbird are relentless attackers at flowers and feeders, going after (if not always defeating) even the large hummingbirds of the Southwest, which can be double their weight. Rufous Hummingbirds are wide-ranging, and breed farther north than any other hummingbird.
The Rufous Hummingbird makes one of the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by the body size. At just over 3 inches long, its roughly 3,9000-mile movement (one-way) from Alaska to Mexico is equivalent to 78,470,000 body lengths. Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Rufous_Hummingbird
