Hummingbird havens and butterfly magnets are good words to describe a backyard designed around attracting these wonderful creatures. If an array of flowering plants are provided in the garden, one will probably see a ruby-throated hummingbird zipping around, along with monarch butterflies emerging somewhere around mid- summer nestled on nectar rich plants. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are our smallest birds measuring about 3 inches long, It uses its long, forked tongue to lap up nectar or sugar water at a rate of 15 times per second.