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Rufous Hummingbird Lokta Card

$5.00 – $8.00

  • Our images are set in a frame on this beautiful, handmade paper from the Nepalese Lokta shrub.
  • This tree-free paper is both environmentally friendly and sustainably harvested, providing a market for cottage industries that are Fair-Trade Certified.
  • Each card comes with an envelope and is packaged individually.
  • Cards are blank on the inside and have a great story on the reverse side about the picture on the front.
  • Handmade cards are not available for wholesale pricing.

Back of Card DESCRIPTION

Rufous hummingbirds are probably the most hardy of all of the hummingbird species that nest in the U.S. and Canada. These hummers breed from Alaska south through British Columbia and southwestern Alberta. They winter mainly in Mexico although some winter along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Louisiana; they have been recorded in all of the eastern states and provinces as far north as Nova Scotia with most sightings in November and December. The male of this species has bright rufous upper parts and flanks and an orange-red throat, while the female is green above with a rufous tinge on her rump and flanks.

Rufous hummingbirds are notoriously pugnacious with adult males generally dominating. Males arrive on northern breeding grounds several weeks before females. They show a strong tendency to return to the same breeding site. When females arrive, the males begin their distinctive, dramatic aerial displays looping, diving and swooping to within inches of the attentive female. These birds build their cup-like nests from down, moss and bark, decorated with flakes of lichen. Although they defend feeding and nesting territories, rufous hummingbirds sometimes nest as close together as a few yards; up to 20 nests may be in a small area.

artwork by Irene Brady © 2003
text by Steve Sierigk

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