Diet
Nectar from flowers and flowering trees, as well as small insects and spiders, are its main food. Although hummingbirds are well-known to feed on nectar, small arthropods are also an important part of adult hummingbirds' diet. Arthropods appear to be the main source of protein, minerals, vitamins, providing a protein source since. Their diet may also occasionally include tree sap taken from sapsucker wells. Hummingbirds show a slight preference for red, tubular flowers as a nectar source. The birds feed from flowers using a long extendendable tongue, and catch insects on the wing or glean them from flowers, leaves, bark, and even from spider's webs.
Young birds are fed insects for protein since nectar is an insufficient source of protein for the growing birds.
Read more about this topic: Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Famous quotes containing the word diet:
“Literary tradition is full of lies about poverty—the jolly beggar, the poor but happy milkmaid, the wholesome diet of porridge, etc.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The pills are a mother, but better,
every color and as good as sour balls.
I’m on a diet from death.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“Newsmen believe that news is a tacitly acknowledged fourth branch of the federal system. This is why most news about government sounds as if it were federally mandated—serious, bulky and blandly worthwhile, like a high-fiber diet set in type.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)