Jul 26, 2026

Florida

Florida Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar

Updated July 2026 · Timing derived from eBird data, 2016–2025

There is no single Florida hummingbird season. There's a wave that arrives in the Panhandle in September and works its way down the state — reaching Orlando in October and settling into South Florida for the winter. Then in spring it runs back the other way.

Which means the honest answer to "when do hummingbirds come to Florida?" depends entirely on where in Florida you're standing. Gainesville and Miami are at their busiest six months apart.

New to feeding hummingbirds? Start with our guide to attracting hummingbirds in Florida for feeders, nectar, and native plants. This page is the timing deep dive.

Regions used below

Western Panhandle — Pensacola
Central Panhandle — Tallahassee
North Peninsula — Gainesville, Jacksonville, Ocala
Central — Orlando, Tampa
South — Miami, Naples, Fort Myers
The Keys — Key West, Marathon

These six behave differently enough that a single statewide calendar would mislead most readers. The Panhandle and South Florida are at their busiest in opposite halves of the year.

January

South Florida's season is in full swing. The north's hasn't started.

South	Busy. Around Miami this is among the strongest months of the year.
Panhandle	Rarity season. Around Tallahassee, this is when Calliope, Broad-billed, Broad-tailed and Buff-bellied all show their yearly peaks — one or two birds at a time, at backyard feeders.
North Peninsula	Very quiet. The breeders are in Central America.
Keys	A modest but steady winter presence.

Why the Panhandle is where the rare birds are

Every hummingbird species on Florida's rarity list is a western bird that took a wrong turn — or, more accurately, took a route that ends in the Southeast instead of Mexico. Those birds arrive along the Gulf, which is why Tallahassee has recorded seven species and the Florida Keys have recorded one.

A maintained feeder in a north Florida garden in January is genuinely how most of them get found.

February

The turn begins.

Panhandle	Hang your feeders. Rufous and Black-chinned reports peak now, and the first spring Ruby-throated are only weeks away.
South	Still strong, but beginning to ease.
North Peninsula	Still quiet. Feeders up by month's end.

March

Spring arrivals sweep north.

Panhandle & North	Reports climb steeply — around Tallahassee and Pensacola they rise more than fivefold across the month.
Keys	Building toward their April high — birds moving north through the islands.
South	Falling away as the wintering birds head north.

April

The Keys have their one month.

The Keys	Peak. The islands are a spring stopover, not an autumn one — this is the busiest the Keys get all year.
Panhandle	A strong spring peak around Pensacola — the northbound wave passing through.
North Peninsula	Nesting season begins.
South	Emptying fast. By month's end there's almost nothing left.

Why nesting season is the demanding one

The female does all of it alone — building a walnut-sized nest of plant down bound with spider silk, often over water, then incubating two eggs for about two weeks and feeding the young for three more. In Florida's long warm season she may do it twice, occasionally three times.

There's a wrinkle specific to hummingbirds. Most birds store calcium in their bones and draw on it while laying. Hummingbirds don't. A female building eggshell has to find calcium in real time, from a diet that's almost entirely nectar — and researchers have repeatedly documented nesting females eating wood ash, lime and soil to get it. Males have never been observed doing the same.

May

South Florida goes quiet — completely.

South & Keys	Effectively empty. By the end of May there are weeks with no hummingbird reports at all.
Panhandle & North	Breeding underway, though numbers dip as females settle onto nests.
Central	Its quietest stretch of the year.

What to do: Heat is the issue now. Above 90°F change nectar daily, and keep the feeder in shade.

June

The gap.

South & Keys	Nothing. Miami-Dade and the Keys both record essentially zero hummingbirds this month.
Panhandle & North	Climbing again as the first young birds fledge.

What to do: If you're south of Orlando and your feeder is untouched, nothing is wrong. Your season starts in September.

July

North Florida's biggest month begins.

North Peninsula	Peak. Around Gainesville this is the busiest stretch of the year — local breeders plus this summer's young.
Panhandle	Climbing hard toward September.
South & Keys	Still empty.

What to do: In the north, add a second feeder if you're seeing chasing. Place two out of sight of each other and you'll host far more birds.

August

The build toward the biggest month in the state.

Panhandle	Climbing steeply. Around Pensacola, reports roughly double across the month.
North Peninsula	Holding at its summer high.
South	The first birds of the new season appear late in the month.

September

The Panhandle has the biggest month anywhere in Florida.

Panhandle	Peak, and it's dramatic. Around Pensacola nearly half of all bird lists record a hummingbird — the highest figure anywhere in the state, in any month.
Why here?	These birds are staging for a nonstop crossing of the Gulf of Mexico, the same way they do on the Alabama coast just west. They're eating for a 500-mile flight over open water.
South	Filling fast — the winter season is starting.

What to do: In the Panhandle this is the month to be generous. Fill often, add feeders, expect crowds.

October

The wave reaches the peninsula.

Central	Peak. Around Orlando this is comfortably the busiest month of the year.
South	Peak. Miami reaches its yearly high — four months after the north peninsula reached theirs.
Panhandle	Collapsing. From near-peak in the first week to almost nothing by the last.
Planting	Prime wildflower sowing window in north and central Florida.

What to do: Sow the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend now, ahead of the cooler dry season. And if you're in South Florida, this is the month to have the feeder out and clean.

November

The north empties; the south settles in.

South & Keys	Settled into the winter season, and staying that way until spring.
Panhandle	Ruby-throated are gone — but Buff-bellied Hummingbirds arrive, and the western rarities begin turning up.
North Peninsula	Quiet until spring.

What to do: In the Panhandle, don't put the feeder away. November through February is when north Florida's most interesting hummingbirds show up, and a maintained feeder is how nearly all of them are found.

December

Two very different Floridas.

South	Busy and steady. Around Miami, December is a better hummingbird month than June by an enormous margin.
Panhandle	Rarity season opens properly. Calliope reports peak this month around Tallahassee.
Everywhere else	Quiet.

The Year at a Glance

When	What
December – February	Panhandle rarity season; South Florida at its busiest
February	Feeders up in the Panhandle and north peninsula
March	Spring arrivals sweep north; South Florida empties
April	The Keys peak; nesting begins in north Florida
May – August	South Florida and the Keys are empty
July – August	North peninsula peak
September	Panhandle peak — the biggest month anywhere in Florida
October	Central and South Florida peak; sow wildflower seed
November	Buff-bellied and western rarities arrive in the Panhandle

How We Built This Calendar

The month-by-month pattern comes from ten years of citizen-science observation rather than general guidance. We pulled eBird bar chart data for Florida covering 2016 through 2025, plus six counties chosen to represent each part of the state — Escambia for the western Panhandle, Leon for Tallahassee, Alachua for the north peninsula, Orange for central Florida, Miami-Dade for the south, and Monroe for the Keys — and read the seasonal shape directly off the reporting rates.

We then checked those patterns against University of Florida IFAS Extension and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and against the published banding research on hummingbirds wintering in Florida and southern Alabama.

Where we give percentages, they describe how often a species is reported on submitted bird lists — a measure of how likely you are to come across one, not a count of how many birds there are.

Sources

eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Florida statewide plus Escambia, Leon, Alachua, Orange, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, 2016–2025.
University of Florida IFAS Extension — Hummingbirds of Florida. Source for breeding range, nesting, and feeder guidance.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Bassett, F., & Cubie, D. (2009). Wintering hummingbirds in Alabama and Florida. Journal of Field Ornithology, 80(2), 154–162.
des Lauriers, J. R. (1994). Hummingbirds eating ashes. The Auk, 111(3), 755–756. Documents nesting female hummingbirds consuming calcium-rich wood ash; males were never observed doing so.