Last modified: Friday, August 3, 2007 7:44 PM EDT They've got the beat: Hummingbird season is here BY SUSAN LaHOUD / SUN CHRONICLE STAFF The smallest bird in the East can be a big backyard attraction. It's the season for hummingbirds in this area and if you have an enticingly bright and nectar-filled habitat, they will likely fly to feed in your yard. Ruby-throated hummingbirds - so named because of the brilliant red feathers on the throat, or gorget, of the male - are the most common in this state, said Marge Rines, a naturalist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society. (Audubon has two sanctuaries in the Attleboro area, Oak Knoll in Attleboro and Stony Brook in Norfolk.) These hummingbirds are metallic-green on top with a gray underbody. Females lack the ruby coloring as do the young males, "but you can very often see one or two spangles starting on young males," she said. Three- to 3 -inches in size, these hyperactive-appearing birds - with wings beating between 60 and 200 times per second - can feed up to 15 times an hour when they're very hungry, she said. Being so small and using so much energy, they sometimes have to. They can also fly up to 60 mph and fly up, forward, backward and sideways, as well as hover almost at a standstill in the air. They have poorly-developed feet and can barely walk. They nest from March to July and can raise between one and three broods. Their grooved tongues suck out the nectar of plant blooms such as bee balm, columbines and salvia, and vines like trumpet, coral and honeysuckle. Their favorite-colored flowers are red, orange and purple, and they prefer the margins of woods and gardens. They also dine on small insects, taking them from spider webs or flies, gnats and mosquitoes on the go, Rines said. The ruby-throated hummingbird's range is from southern Canada to Costa Rica; they start showing up here in late April. "By the second week of May, they really come in," Rines said. "They're gone by October." While they're in the area, they add to its biodiversity and act as pollinators as they put on some incredible aerial displays. Catch sight of this hummingbird up close and one can hear its trill chirps and its "wing whistle," or buzzing, created by its frantic flapping. While the ruby-throated variety takes wing in the fall, in recent years a "vagrant" variety has appeared on the scene at about that time. The 3 -inch Rufous hummingbird, whose stomping ground is typically the West, has been reported more frequently in this state, Rines said. A "vagrant" is a bird species that is not native to the area. "It's been showing up with increasing frequency in the fall," Rines said. In fact, since the ruby throats are typically on their way by then, there's more Rufous hummingbirds than the common birds in autumn. There's still not a lot of this variety in Massachusetts. The males are distinguished by their bright red-brown upper side and flaming orange-red gorget; the females by their green back with a dull rufous (brownish-red or rust coloring) on the sides and base of the tail. But even spotting one in this region 10 or 15 years ago was a "big deal," Rines said. "I don't know if it's a changing pattern of distribution or of people just paying more attention," she said. SUSAN LaHOUD can be reached at 508-236-0398 or at slahoud@thesunchronicle.com.