Most of us can’t wait until April every year to start putting out our Hummingbird feeders. We love attracting those little birds that are so much fun to watch. I live in the South near Nashville where we get a ton of the Ruby Throated Hummingbirds. We laugh when they hover around us chirping and flitting seemingly suspended in mid air. They add a whole other dimension to outdoor grilling.
Summer heat in the lower 48 states can make it a challenge to keep them fed. We have to monitor our feeders to make sure they get refilled and cleaned as soon as they’re empty or we need to empty and clean them to make sure they don’t go bad. Either way, the joy we get from watching them far outweighs any fuss on our parts.
The problem is that near the end of the summer we may start noticing a decrease in either numbers or competition at our feeders so we assume they have started migrating and may become lax with our feeders. We either don’t watch them as closely as we should or we take them down altogether because we think we’ve done our part.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Very late summer well into fall is when all the hummers are trying to store up the energy to make their long migrations as far as South America. They’ve been known to migrate distances approaching 3000 miles. This is the time they need us the most. They need to be able to count on the same supply of food they’ve had throughout the summer because the last thing they need to do is waste valuable energy looking for food.
The truth is that hummingbirds eat insects for sustained energy but they need the quick calories from our feeders to carry out this insect hunt. Again, they don’t need to be lacking in nectar-based calories when they’re trying to put on some weight.
If you’ve heard it said that feeding hummers will delay their migration you can rest easy. That’s just not true. They make their departure decisions based on the decreasing length of the days in the fall not by availability of feeders.
The final word I want to leave you with is to not take your feeders down because you don’t see birds at them. Not only will there be migrating birds that will appreciate it during the fall but there have been hummingbirds sighted at feeders as late as early winter.
Most of all, enjoy the time we get with them every year and help them make their trips easier by leaving your feeders out just a little bit longer every year.
You’ll be surprised to find them feeding after you thought they were long gone.
Here’s a related article:
- Bye Hummingbirds, Hello Teal – As I watched the birds gather and dive bomb each other at my hummingbird feeder yesterday, I noticed that they actually looked pudgy. Good thing they’re fattening up since Missouri’s hummers may have to fly over 600 miles of open water …
Here in the Pacific Northwest we have Anna’s Hummingbirds all year around, so we can’t ever relax when it comes to keeping our feeders operable! In fact, we keep four tube feeders filled at all times – and when the temperature drops to below freezing we hang the feeders under a 60-watt light bulb (the incandescent kind) day and night. It’s amazing to see those little guys feeding with snow on the ground!
Hi Alice,
You are indeed blessed to have them year round! How very cool!
Kudos to you for your commitment to keeping them fed and happy.
When you say “tube feeders” are you talking about nectar feeders in that shape or another food source?
Jeff
When I lived in Sicamous, British Columbia, Canada we would get frost in late October early November. These frosts where the killing kind. We had a Ruby Throat Hummingbird stop at our feeder and stay three days two weeks before Christmas. It was cold out, however I kept making sure the hummer got fed.
Hi David,
Glad that you stopped by!
It was very good of you to make sure the little one had something to eat during that challenging time.
I’m no expert but I think their incredibly high metabolic rates keeps them from freezing in those conditions.
Thanks for your comment and feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Best,
Jeff
Hi there…just wondering if anyone out here in BC has seen any returning hummingbirds? I have my feeder out and waiting…anyone have them all year! if you do, lucky you!
Hi Chickenlady,
I’m in the US in Tennessee and it won’t be much longer until I start seeing them and I can’t wait.
Thanks for stopping by and let us know as soon as you see some.
Jeff
Hi Jeff in Tennessee. I’m actually just near the U.S. border in the township of Langley (outside of Vancouver)…we have had some pretty (unseasonably cold) temperatures lately (lucky I covered my banana trees for the winter!) but now today it is up to 8 degrees…bring on spring!
will definitely let you know, first time I see one…believe it or not usually like clockwork they show up on my back porch on Mar 12 or 13!
Chickenlady,
That is one of nature’s true wonders. I have birds that vacation here during the winter that I’ll bet come within a few days each year.
Keep me posted on the hummers and feel free to email a pic to me so I can post it.
I’m working on getting a community photo posting application for this blog and hope to have it up within a month.
Jeff
Jeffs last blog post..How to Choose the Best Birding Binoculars
Me again! sorry I didn’t reply sooner…when I got home from work March 12….ater that evening about 5 pm there was a rufous hummingbird at my porch feeder…calling for a bit of snow today…put out another feeder. G
That’s great! Let me know if your numbers continue to climb even or because of the snow forecast.
There’s a little hummingbird that seems to live in my backyard and flies around all the time. It’s so pretty!
Hummingbirds are so adorable. Thanks for writing this!
Great article. I’m in Eastern Canada so we only get the ruby-throated hummingbird. I can hardly wait for them to return to my garden but I think it will be a few more weeks yet, despite the unseasonably warm weather.
Thanks for sharing.
Geoff
Hi Geoff,
It seems almost everybody has had a mild winter. I hope they come back sooner because of it. Thank you for stopping by and it was my pleasure to share. Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see covered in the blog. Have a great weekend!
Jeff