Expect to see more and more tiny birds, with fast wings, long beaks, and bright red throat patches, starting next week and into the fall. You’ll find them at feeders, in backyards, and around flowers.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds are the only species of hummingbirds that breed in Alabama, and in fact the only species of hummingbird that breeds east of the Mississippi River. They’ll spend the summer breeding in Alabama’s forests, then head south for the winter.

“They live fast and furious lives,” said Emma Rhodes, co-founder of Banding Coalition of the Americas, a migratory bird research and conservation group.

But most people don’t know their true nature.

“Hummingbirds are not nice,” Rhodes said. “People think they’re so cute…I promise you, there was a reason why my former banding trainer, Bob Sargent, said ‘if they were the size of a cat, we’d all be dead,’ because they are vicious.”

Male ruby-throated hummingbirds have a large patch of iridescent red feathers, called a gorget, on their throats. The patch of feathers catches the light and is used to attract mates.

While female ruby-throated hummingbirds don’t have the red patch, both male and female ruby-throated hummingbirds have green backs and grayish white wings and bellies. They are tiny, typically only weighing two or three grams and only a few inches long.

But though they’re little, ruby-throated hummingbirds are fierce: males are territorial, and look to mate with as many females as possible in their territory. And after they’ve mated, the males take off, leaving the females to raise the young on their own.

While most people think of hummingbirds as feeding on nectar, they also eat a lot of insects, Rhodes said, particularly when they’re breeding. These insects are a critical part of their diet, providing protein and nutrients for the chicks.

Their nests are anywhere from seven to 70 feet up, only a bit larger than a quarter. But as the chicks grow, the nest stretches to accommodate their size. By the time they’re ready to leave the nest, the chicks are bigger than their mothers.

Some ruby-throated hummingbirds have even been known to nest near hawks and other birds of prey for protection, since those predators aren’t likely to target a bird that small, Rhodes said.

When it comes time to migrate south for the winter, starting in August, the chicks and adults are fueled up and ready to go. But the birds still need to find food on their journey south, because hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism rate of any vertebrate and need to eat three times their body weight every day, Rhodes said.

To survive through the night, the hummingbirds will go into almost a mini hibernation, lowering their body temperature and shutting down their organs.

When the birds are getting ready to migrate, they’ll almost double their body weight, to five or six grams, in around a week, Rhodes said.

“You’ve got to keep on it if you’ve got to eat that much a day, and there’s competition,” she said. “So, you’re competing essentially to survive. And that’s why they’re so aggressive.”

During their migration, some ruby-throated hummingbirds will cross the Gulf of Mexico, while some will fly across Texas to reach their ultimate destination, the Yucatan Peninsula in Central America. Rhodes said it’s not known why some choose to fly over the Gulf while some don’t.

While the ruby-throated hummingbird population increased over the last half-century, according to Cornell University, recent studies show the bird’s population has declined in the last 15 years. But the birds have adapted and know how to take advantage of human-created landscapes. They know to look for feeders and will stop in backyards. Rhodes said.

In order to make life easier for the hummingbirds, Rhodes says people should aim to create “bird-friendly backyards,” such as:

• Use native plants, which will attract insects for the birds to eat.
• Be wary of outdoor cats, which can catch and kill the birds.
• Guard against praying mantises that prey on hummingbirds; they’ve been known to hang from feeders to catch their prey.

Like other birds, ruby-throated hummingbirds also cannot see window glass and are vulnerable to hitting a window and dying. You can purchase clear adhesive paper that will make windows visible to birds, but an easy way to lessen bird strikes is to put the hummingbird feeders right next to the window, instead of a few feet away, Rhodes said. That way, the birds know to stop at the feeder before they hit the window.

“Who doesn’t want the feeder right by their window to see the birds?” asked Rhodes.