Jul 25, 2026
Georgia Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar
Updated July 2026 · Based on eBird data from 2016–2025
Georgia runs from barrier islands to the Blue Ridge, and hummingbird timing shifts by nearly a month across that span. The mountains have the shortest season in the state — barely six months. The coast never really closes at all, and is busier in December than it is in March.
New to feeding hummingbirds? Start with our guide to attracting hummingbirds in Georgia for feeders, nectar, and native plants. This page is the timing deep dive.
Here's the whole year, month by month.
Regions used below
Coast — Savannah, Brunswick, the barrier islands
South Georgia — Valdosta, Thomasville, Albany, the coastal plain
Piedmont — Atlanta, Macon, Columbus, Augusta
Mountains — Blue Ridge, Rabun, Dahlonega, the north Georgia highlands
South Georgia and the mountains have far fewer submitted sighting lists than the coast or Atlanta, so their seasonal shape is dependable but individual weeks are less precise.
January
Georgia's second season, and it's a coastal one.
| Coast | Hummingbirds every week, at rates comparable to early spring. This is a genuine winter population, not a stray. |
| South Georgia | Present most weeks. Thomasville is the standout — Black-chinned turn up there through the month most years. |
| Piedmont | Effectively zero. |
| Mountains | Zero. Nothing in ten years of records. |
What is Georgia's "second hummingbird season"?
It's Georgia DNR's own term for November through February, when more hummingbird species are present in the state than during the entire breeding season. Twelve species are on Georgia's official list. Only one nests here.
Rufous is the most common winter visitor by a wide margin — DNR documented more than 100 in a single winter. Black-chinned is next, with Calliope, Buff-bellied and Broad-billed turning up in ones and twos. If you have one, report it: Wildlife Conservation Section, 478-994-1438.
What to do: On the coast and in south Georgia, keep the feeder up and clean, and take steps to stop the nectar freezing on cold nights. Inland, a winter feeder is a long shot — but the state's rarest records have come from exactly that kind of long shot.
February
The last quiet month, and the month feeders go up in the south.
| Coast & South | Winter visitors still present, thinning slightly toward month's end. |
| Late February | Hang feeders in south Georgia ahead of the first arrivals. |
| Piedmont & Mountains | Still empty. |
What to do: Put the feeder out before you expect birds, not after. Hummingbirds have exceptional spatial memory and return to reliable food sources year after year — being first in the neighborhood pays off for seasons.
March
Arrival month, working north.
| Week 1 | Hang feeders in the Piedmont. Numbers begin stirring in south Georgia. |
| Week 3 | First real arrivals in south Georgia — reports more than double in a week. |
| Week 4 | First arrivals reach Atlanta and the Piedmont. Hang feeders in the mountains. |
| Mountains | Still nothing. Rabun County has no March records at all. |
What to do: This matches what Georgia DNR has said for years — south Georgia in early March, the mountains a couple of weeks behind. Watch for males chasing each other; territorial behavior is the first sign the season has properly started.
April
The mountains open, and nesting begins.
| Mountains | First arrivals in the opening days, then a fast climb — from nothing to nearly one checklist in four by the third week. |
| Piedmont | Climbing steadily all month as birds settle onto territory. |
| South & Coast | Well established. The coast reaches its spring high. |
| All regions | Nesting underway statewide. |
Why nesting season is the demanding one
A female builds the walnut-sized nest alone, without any help from a mate, and Georgia DNR notes the process can take up to twelve days. She then lays two eggs each about the size of a black-eyed pea, incubates for roughly two weeks, and feeds the young in the nest for another three. In Georgia she'll often do all of it twice in a season.
There's a wrinkle specific to hummingbirds. Most birds store calcium in medullary bone and draw on it while laying. Hummingbirds don't have it. A female building eggshell has to find calcium in real time, from a diet that's almost entirely nectar. Researchers have repeatedly documented nesting females eating wood ash, lime, and soil to get it — and never observed males doing the same.
What to do: Keep feeders full and clean, and skip the insecticide entirely. Nesting females need small insects and spiders for protein, and spider silk is what binds the nest together.
May
Settled and breeding, statewide.
| All regions | Steady. Every part of Georgia now has hummingbirds, for the only stretch of the year when that's true of the mountains. |
| Coast | Dips slightly toward month's end — spring migrants have moved through, leaving only the breeders. |
What to do: Heat starts to matter. Above 90°F, change nectar every one to two days, and fill the feeder only as full as your birds will drink in a couple of days.
June
The quiet middle.
| Statewide | The lowest point of the breeding season. Females are sitting on nests rather than visiting feeders. |
| South Georgia | Holds up better than the rest — second broods start early down there. |
What to do: Don't read a quieter feeder as the end of the season. June is the pause before Georgia's biggest three months.
July
The young start flying, and everything changes.
| Statewide | Reports roughly double over the month as this year's fledglings join the adults at feeders. |
| South Georgia | Already above four checklists in ten. |
| Departures | Adult males begin slipping south late in the month, well ahead of females and young. |
What to do: Add a second feeder if you're seeing chasing. Hummingbirds defend food they can see all of, so two placed out of sight of each other support far more birds than one.
August
The build toward peak.
| Statewide | Roughly a third of all checklists record hummingbirds, in every region including the mountains. |
| Mountains | Climbing hard through the month toward an early-September crest. |
| Events | The annual public hummingbird banding at Smith-Gilbert Gardens in Kennesaw — live banding by master bander Julia Elliott, one of only around 150 people in North America permitted to band hummingbirds, plus crafts and a scavenger hunt. Included with garden admission. |
What to do: Keep everything full. Birds are beginning to lay down fat for migration, and a reliable feeder now matters more than one in April.
September
The biggest month of the year, everywhere in Georgia.
| South Georgia | Peak in the second week — close to half of all checklists. |
| Mountains | Peak in the second week too, and the highest they get all year. |
| Piedmont | Peak in the first week, then a steady decline. |
| Coast | Peak, and holding through the whole month. |
What to do: More feeders, filled more often. Georgia's own breeding birds are joined by everything moving down from farther north, and by then the summer's young are flying too. This is the month to be generous.
October
The season closes — abruptly in the north, gently on the coast.
| Mountains | The most abrupt ending in the state. From roughly one checklist in six to nothing at all, in a single week. |
| Piedmont | Falls away fast through the month, essentially finished by the end. |
| Coast | Declines gradually and never bottoms out. The winter birds are already arriving. |
| Events | The Hogansville Hummingbird Festival, held the third weekend of October — a street festival with music, food and 200-plus vendors, free to attend, and the principal fundraiser for the Hogansville Charitable Trust. Hummingbird-themed rather than a banding event — for live banding, go to Smith-Gilbert in August. |
What to do: This is the wildflower planting month. Sow the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend in October or November so the seed gets the cold, moist period most of the varieties need before spring.
Leave your feeder up. It's a myth that doing so delays migration — hummingbirds move on day length and instinct, not food supply.
November
The handover.
| Piedmont & Mountains | Done. Take feeders down about two weeks after your last sighting. |
| Coast | Still going, and now with a different cast — the winter visitors are settling in. |
| South Georgia | Thins out sharply, then begins to fill again with western visitors. |
What to do: Georgia's second hummingbird season opens this month. On the coast and in south Georgia, don't take the feeder down at all — a maintained winter feeder is how nearly every one of Georgia's rare hummingbird records has been found.
December
The coast's second peak.
| Coast | Busier than March. Hummingbird reports around Savannah run higher in December than they do at the start of spring migration. |
| South Georgia | Winter visitors present, Thomasville especially. Black-chinned are regular there this month. |
| Piedmont & Mountains | Nothing. |
What to do: Keep the nectar from freezing, and report what turns up. Females and young often can't be identified without a licensed bander measuring them in the hand, which is exactly why Georgia DNR wants to hear from you.
The Year at a Glance
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Late February | Feeders up in south Georgia |
| Early March | Feeders up in the Piedmont |
| Mid-March | First arrivals in south Georgia |
| Late March | First arrivals in Atlanta; feeders up in the mountains |
| Early April | First arrivals in the north Georgia mountains |
| April – August | Nesting season; often two broods |
| Late summer | Smith-Gilbert Gardens public banding, Kennesaw |
| September | Peak month statewide |
| Third weekend of October | Hogansville Hummingbird Festival |
| October – November | Sow wildflower seed |
| November – February | Georgia's second hummingbird season, on the coast and in the south |
How We Built This Calendar
Every arrival, departure, and peak date on this page comes from ten years of citizen-science observation rather than from general guidance. We pulled eBird bar chart data for Georgia and for four counties chosen to represent each part of the state — Chatham for the coast, Lowndes for south Georgia, Fulton for the Piedmont, and Rabun for the mountains — covering 2016 through 2025, and read the arrival and departure weeks directly off the reporting rates. We then checked those windows against Georgia Department of Natural Resources and University of Georgia Extension guidance, which they match.
A region's "first arrivals" week is the first week in which reporting rises clearly above the off-season baseline and keeps climbing. Feeder dates are set two weeks ahead of that.
Percentages describe how often a species appears on birdwatchers' submitted sighting lists — a measure of how likely you are to encounter one, not a population count. South Georgia and the mountains have far fewer submitted lists than the coast or Atlanta, so we've described their seasons in words rather than numbers.
Sources
- eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Georgia statewide plus Chatham, Lowndes, Fulton, and Rabun counties, 2016–2025. Source for all arrival, departure, and seasonal presence figures.
- Georgia Department of Natural Resources — Hummingbirds in Your Backyard. Source for nesting behaviour, brood counts, winter species status, and reporting details.
- Georgia DNR — Georgia's Second Hummingbird Season.
- Georgia Ornithological Society — 2023 Official State Checklist.
- University of Georgia Cooperative Extension — Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Georgia Spring Arrival.
- Georgia Bird Observatory — Panola Mountain Banding Station, the longest-running year-round banding station in Georgia.
- 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.
Event dates and formats change from year to year. Check organizer websites before making plans.
Bethany Sloan has served as General Manager of Pop's Birding since 2010, continuing the legacy of her grandfather, William "Pops" Sloan, inventor of the Original Hummingbird Swing. A lifelong hummingbird enthusiast, educator, and independent researcher, she leads the company's educational content, including its 50-State Hummingbird Guide series, Migration Guide and Hummingbird Learning Center. Bethany combines scientific research, regional migration data, and more than 16 years of hands-on experience to create trusted educational resources for bird enthusiasts across North America.
