June Osborne paints a fully detailed portrait of perhaps the best-known hummingbird in the United States, the rubythroat. Drawing from her own birdwatching experiences and journals, she offers an "up close and personal" look at a female rubythroat building her nest and rearing young, as well as an account of a day in the life of a male rubythroat and stories of the hummers' amazing migrations between their summer breeding grounds in the United States and Canada and their winter homes in Mexico and Central America. In addition to this life history, Osborne recounts early hummingbird sightings by New World explorers and colonists and tells how the bird received its common and scientific names. After a general overview of hummingbirds' distinctive ways of feeding, flying, and conserving energy, she offers a detailed description of the rubythroat that will help you tell females from males, immature birds from adults, and rubythroats from similar species.