Here's today's red things in nature fact of the day. I was watching a ruby-throated hummingbird visiting my columbine flowers this morning. The relationship between these two is perfectly timed. The columbine blooms at the same time that hummingbirds return to my area. Red is a color that attracts these busy little birds. The long, tubular flowers make it hard for some pollinators to get to the nectar, but they are perfect for hummingbirds with their long, skinny bills. There are not very many native wildflowers in the eastern U.S. that are red. This could be due to the fact that we only have one common hummingbird species here. In the western U.S., where there are multiple hummingbird species, there are more native red wildflowers. #redweek #red #flowers #columbine #birds #rubythroatedhummingbird #natureclub

Posted by Mel Grosvenor at 2021-05-20 11:45:35 UTC