Welcome to
Operation RubyThroat:
The Hummingbird Project
This is a regional EarthTrek project that includes North and Central America.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird data for 2010 are now being accepted via the on-line logging forms! You also have the option to contribute data about RTHU migration arrival/departure times and nesting phenology from PREVIOUS years, so please check your nature journals for relevant information and carefully make note of the appropriate year when your data are submitted.
INTRODUCTION
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (RTHU), Archilochus colubris, are the most widely distributed of the 339 species of hummingbirds, occurring in all ten countries of North and Central America. They come frequently to nectar plants and backyard sugar water feeders and are easily observed. Nonetheless, many aspects of RTHU natural history are not well understood, so “Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project” has teamed with EarthTrek to allow citizen scientists to collect data about RTHU migration and nesting.
Operation RubyThroat has been in operation since 1984 as a outreach initiative of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in York, South Carolina USA. The project is also affiliated with The GLOBE Program, through which K-12 teachers and students make hummingbird observations and submit data through the GLOBE Web site. Now, through EarthTrek, adult citizen scientists and independent students also can contribute important data to the overall Operation RubyThroat project.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds breed in the eastern half of the U.S. and in southern Canada. During the non-breeding season they migrate to Mexico or into Central America as far south as western Panama. Thus, Operation RubyThroat/EarthTrek is open to anyone who lives in or travels to locations where RTHU occur: The 38 easternmost U.S. states, southern Canada from Alberta eastward, Mexico, and/or all seven countries of Central America (Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama). We especially need RTHU data from outside the U.S.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
Equipment needed to participate in EarthTrek/Operation RubyThroat is minimal. Most observers will want to have one or more hummingbird feeders hanging where they can easily see RTHU. It is important to keep the feeders clean and to replace the sugar water solution on a regular basis. (See Hummingbird Feeding Hints.) You can also participate by observing hummingbirds at native and exotic plants that produce nectar. (See Hummingbird Habitats.)
You also may wish to have a good pair of binoculars through which to view RTHU coming to feeders or nectar plants or at nests.
PROJECT GOALS
Through EarthTrek, Operation RubyThroat seeks data about two aspects of Ruby-throated Hummingbird behavior: 1) Timing of migration; and 2) Nesting. In addition to providing much-needed baseline information, over time your data may help show whether these RTHU behaviors are changing, perhaps due to external factors such as climate change, alteration of habitat, etc.
MIGRATION PROTOCOL: Other projects have looked at spring arrival dates for RTHU in North America, but through Operation RubyThroat’s “Migration Protocol,” EarthTrek observers will report data on RTHU as they arrive and depart on BOTH ends of the migratory path, paying attention to each bird’s age and sex. Your data may help fine-tune the limits of RTHU migration and may show whether different RTHU age/sex classes follow different migratory paths. Migration data are especially needed from south Florida and the Florida Keys, from the northern edge of RTHU range in Canada, and from all of Mexico and Central America.