Jul 26, 2026
Idaho Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar
Updated July 2026 · Timing derived from eBird data, 2016–2025
Idaho runs two hummingbird seasons a year, and until recently only one of them existed. The breeding season runs April through September and involves four species. The second runs October through March, involves exactly one, and is the result of a range expansion still unfolding around Boise as you read this.
New to feeding hummingbirds? Start with our guide to attracting hummingbirds in Idaho for feeders, nectar, and native plants. This page is the timing deep dive.
Here's the whole year, month by month.
Regions used below
Panhandle — Coeur d'Alene, Sandpoint, Moscow
Central Mountains — Sun Valley, McCall, Salmon
Treasure Valley — Boise, Nampa, Caldwell
Eastern Idaho — Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Teton Valley
Listed in arrival order, which is not the order you'd guess. The Panhandle is Idaho's earliest region and eastern Idaho its latest. Outside Ada County, Idaho's birding coverage is thin, so each region's seasonal shape is dependable but individual weeks are less precise.
January
One species, and only in one part of the state.
| Treasure Valley | Anna's Hummingbirds, in the middle of an Idaho winter. Reported steadily all month around Boise. |
| Panhandle & Central | Smaller numbers, but present. |
| Eastern Idaho | Essentially none. Wintering Anna's haven't reached Idaho Falls. |
How a hummingbird survives an Idaho January
Anna's drop into torpor overnight — lowering body temperature dramatically to conserve energy — then need to refuel urgently at first light. Boise State researchers documented one banded bird near New Meadows that came through a hundred-day stretch including forty-five days that never rose above freezing, with lows around ten below zero.
If you're feeding one, the critical window is the half hour before sunrise. Use a heated feeder, or bring it in overnight and set it out early.
February
Still just Anna's — and some of them are already nesting.
| Treasure Valley | Anna's steady through the month. Nest-building has been recorded in Boise as early as February. |
| Everywhere else | The four breeding species are still in Mexico and the Southwest. Six weeks to go. |
What to do: Keep the winter feeder going and keep it thawed. If you're planning native plantings, golden currant and western columbine are the two that will be flowering when the first migrants arrive.
March
The last quiet month, and Anna's begin thinning out.
| Anna's | Declining steadily through the month as birds disperse. |
| Late March | Hang feeders in the Panhandle. The first Calliope are days away. |
| Elsewhere | Nothing yet. |
April
The season opens — in the north first.
| Week 1 | First Calliope reach the Panhandle — the earliest hummingbirds anywhere in Idaho. Hang feeders in the Treasure Valley and Central Mountains. |
| Week 2 | Rufous following into the north. |
| Week 3 | Arrivals in the Central Mountains and the first Treasure Valley birds. Hang feeders in eastern Idaho. |
| Week 4 | Numbers jump sharply. Black-chinned arrive around Boise; statewide reports climb more than threefold in a week. |
What to do: Feeders up everywhere by mid-month. Males arrive first and stake out territory, so a single bird guarding your feeder in late April is completely normal.
May
Everyone's here, and the spring Rufous wave passes through.
| Week 1 | Rufous spring peak. These are birds heading north, not staying. |
| Weeks 2–4 | Black-chinned climb hard toward their summer plateau. Calliope reach their spring high in the mountains. Broad-tailed settle into eastern Idaho and the high country. |
| Eastern Idaho | Last region to fill, with Broad-tailed leading. |
Why nesting season is the demanding one
The female does all of it alone. Idaho Fish and Game describes the nest as about the size of a walnut, camouflaged with lichen and bark and bound with spider silk. She lays two white eggs the size of small jellybeans, and the young are ready to leave in about 21 to 25 days. She feeds them insects, not just nectar.
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: Skip the insecticide entirely. Nesting females need small insects and spiders for protein, and spider silk is what holds the nest together.
June
The quiet month — and the one that fools people.
| Rufous | Their lowest point of the season — down to roughly half the May figure. The northbound wave has passed and the southbound one hasn't started. |
| Everything else | Steady but subdued. Females are on nests rather than at feeders. |
| Anna's | Effectively gone until August. |
What to do: Don't read a quieter June feeder as the season winding down. Idaho's biggest month is eight weeks away.
July
Young birds fledge, and the Rufous start coming back.
| Mid-July | Watch for juveniles at feeders — Idaho Fish and Game flags this as the moment. They're often noticeably clumsy and unafraid. |
| Rufous | More than double their June low by month's end. The southbound migration has begun. |
| Broad-tailed | Peak in eastern Idaho this month. |
What to do: Add a second feeder now if you haven't. Rufous are notoriously territorial, and a single male will try to run everything else off. Idaho Fish and Game recommends multiple feeders for exactly this reason — place them out of sight of each other.
August
The biggest month of the Idaho year, by a wide margin.
| Week 1 | Peak. Nearly half of all Idaho checklists record a hummingbird — more than at any other point in the year. |
| Why | Rufous return south through the Rocky Mountains rather than back down the coast, and Idaho sits directly on that route. Reports run more than double the spring passage. |
| Weeks 3–4 | Still high, but the decline has started. |
What to do: This is the month to be generous. Fill more often, add feeders, and expect fights. The birds coming through are fueling for a journey to central Mexico.
September
The season empties out fast.
| Week 1 | Down to roughly half the August peak. |
| Weeks 2–4 | A steep fall — under a tenth of the peak by month's end. |
| Late September | Anna's reports begin climbing. The handover is starting. |
What to do: Idaho Fish and Game's advice is to leave your feeder up until the end of September, so migrants coming down from farther north have somewhere to stop.
October
The changeover.
| Week 1 | The last breeding-species stragglers. After this, effectively none until April. |
| All month | Anna's climb steadily in the Treasure Valley and the Panhandle. The second season is opening as the first one closes. |
| Planting | Prime wildflower sowing window, once soil has cooled but before hard freeze. |
What to do: Sow the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend now. And if you're in the Treasure Valley, don't put the feeder away — switch it over.
November
Anna's peak, in the coldest part of the state's populated valleys.
| Treasure Valley | The Anna's high point of the year. More Anna's are reported around Boise in early November than in any other week. |
| Panhandle | Building toward a December peak. |
| Everything else | Gone. |
What to do: This is the decision month. If an Anna's has settled on your yard, commit — a heated feeder, or two rotated so one is always thawed. Boise State's researchers advise not taking a feeder down once a wintering bird has committed to it.
December
The second season in full.
| Treasure Valley | Anna's holding steady all month. |
| Panhandle | Their own peak arrives now. |
| Research | Boise State's Intermountain Bird Observatory bands roughly two hundred Anna's each winter, largely at private homes. If one is using your feeder, they'd like to know. |
What to do: Keep it thawed, keep it clean — a heated feeder needs cleaning more often than an unheated one, not less — and report what you have.
The Year at a Glance
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Late March | Feeders up in the Panhandle |
| Early April | First Calliope reach northern Idaho; feeders up in the Treasure Valley and Central Mountains |
| Mid-April | Feeders up in eastern Idaho |
| Early May | Rufous spring passage peak; eastern Idaho fills |
| June | The lull — females on nests, Rufous at their low |
| Mid-July | Juveniles start appearing at feeders |
| Early August | Peak of the year — the southbound Rufous surge |
| End of September | Take feeders down — unless you're switching to winter mode |
| October – November | Sow wildflower seed; Anna's arrive and peak |
| November – March | Winter Anna's season, Treasure Valley and 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 Idaho covering 2016 through 2025, plus four counties chosen to represent each part of the state — Kootenai for the Panhandle, Blaine for the central mountains, Ada for the Treasure Valley, and Bonneville for eastern Idaho — and read the seasonal shape directly off the reporting rates.
We then checked those windows against Idaho Department of Fish and Game guidance, which puts hummingbirds in Idaho "from mid-April to September," and against the Intermountain Bird Observatory's published research on wintering Anna's. No Idaho authority publishes species-by-species arrival dates, so the week-level detail here is eBird-derived and should be read as reporting patterns rather than an official calendar.
Outside Ada County, Idaho's birding coverage is comparatively thin. Each region's seasonal shape is dependable, but individual weeks are less precise than in the more heavily birded parts of the country.
Sources
- eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Idaho statewide plus Kootenai, Blaine, Ada, and Bonneville counties, 2016–2025. Source for all seasonal figures.
- Idaho Department of Fish and Game — Windows to Wildlife, June 2023 hummingbird issue. Source for nesting biology, feeder guidance, and season dates.
- Intermountain Bird Observatory, Boise State University — Winter Hummingbirds. Source for wintering Anna's, banding numbers, and cold-weather feeding guidance.
- Pollock, J. J., Ware Carlisle, H., Hayes, H. M., & Robinson, B. W. (2021). Monitoring through community science: Anna's Hummingbird winter range expansion into Idaho. Western Birds, 52(1), 58–67.
- 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.
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.
