Are you sure it's not a "she" Ruby-throat hummingbird?

I think it's a female too.

As an afterthought, here is a photo of a male RT at the same plant here in Costa Rica. Notice the red throat, 'glowing' a little.Not the best of photos but it was the only one I had at that particular plant.

REally?
A female? This is my first encounter with hummingbirds
so I'm not sure. Thanks for the comments!
Yes Now I see the difference between male and female.
Thank You!
Jan

Jan, you have to catch the sun shining on the throat, to see males throat 'glow' otherwise it looks 'brownish'...still lovely though. It starts out with just a few hairs.Note the 'red spot' on the above photo.
We only see them from Oct-Mar then the return North.

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Thanks for the advise! I'll really be examining him/her
now LOL. I'll keep you updated!

janellelee,
These photos show the juvenile male RT's throat. It starts out speckled or streaked, then the red feathers of the gorget appear one by one.

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CTNCHPR,

Those pictures are lovely!
Where do you live that you get so many and they are so beautiful? I'm looking to buy a feeded like that one. I see that they are quite popular!
I hope & Pray that I will be able to get HB's like this in my yard... THanks for these pictures!
Janellelee

Jan,

Your bird is a male that was born this past summer. They start out with a white stippled throat similar to a female's and grow in the full red gorget by the time they migrate back to the north in their fist spring. The bottom photo posted on Feb 12th shows one gorget feather grown in on the center of the throat. A female's throat would be white with minimal stippling and would not have that one feather. Within the next month or so, the red throat will grow in one feather at a time and the white tipped tail feathers will make way for a shorter pointed forked tail without any white. In past years, most of the young males in my yard had full gorgets by late March or early April before they departed for the north.

My apologies, Jan. I never noticed the 'dot' on your photo. As mentioned before, we only see a few a year and I don't have feeders.

CTNCHPR, I want to know what kind of camera and lens you have that captures them that well! The pics are fantastic!! For what it's worth, I think it's probably a young male, too. That little dot is a give-away! When the young guys first start to come around, it's really hard to tell them from the females. Just from observation, it seems that the baby males have a more slender neck at first than the adult females do. They start to "bulk up" a bit as they get older and the red feathers start to appear. (Again, not an expert opinion at all - just from my hours of ecstatic observation!)

When did these Rubies show up? Have you had them all winter or could they be the first migrating Rubies on this season?

They showed up in December, They could have been here prior but I wasn't looking for them. We have never had them before.
I pray they stay on forever!