Jul 26, 2026
Massachusetts Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar
Updated July 2026 · Timing derived from eBird data, 2016–2025
Massachusetts has the shortest and most sharply defined hummingbird season of any state we've mapped. Nothing from November through March, an arrival that goes from zero to everywhere in about three weeks, a quiet stretch in June that fools people every year, and a peak in late August that's earlier than anywhere in the South.
New to feeding hummingbirds? Start with our guide to attracting hummingbirds in Massachusetts for feeders, nectar, and native plants. This page is the timing deep dive.
Here's the whole year, month by month.
One state, one window
Unlike the bigger states in this series, Massachusetts doesn't need regional calendars. From the Berkshires to Nantucket is under 190 miles, and the arrival spread across that distance is a matter of days. Where the west does differ is in breeding density — the Berkshire highlands hold the state's highest concentration of nesting hummingbirds, and Cape Cod and the Islands the lowest.
January & February
Empty — with one asterisk.
| Statewide | No hummingbirds in ten years of records. The season is genuinely closed. |
| The asterisk | A handful of western vagrants have survived New England winters at maintained feeders. One Rufous stayed in South Orleans from December through late March; another pair wintered in Orleans into March. |
What to do: Nothing, unless you already have a bird. If you do have a hummingbird at a Massachusetts feeder in January, you have something genuinely rare — keep the nectar from freezing, and get in touch with a local birding group.
March
Still nothing.
| Statewide | Zero. The birds that will nest here are still in Central America or working their way up the Gulf Coast. |
What to do: A good month to clean and check your feeders, and to get columbine in the ground if you're planting.
April
The season opens in the last week.
| Weeks 1–2 | Nothing yet. |
| Week 3 | The very first reports appear — a trickle, and only just. |
| Week 4 | Hang your feeders. First arrivals proper. Mass Audubon's own advice is the last week of April, and this is why. |
Pop's tip: Males arrive first and spend a week or two claiming territory before the females follow. So a feeder that sits untouched through the first days of May isn't a failed feeder — it's an early one. Hummingbirds have exceptional spatial memory, and the feeder that's already there when they arrive is the one they'll come back to next year.
May
Zero to everywhere in three weeks.
| Week 1 | Reports jump fivefold in seven days. |
| Week 2 | Nearly double again. Females arriving now. |
| Week 3 | Spring high point. This is as visible as hummingbirds get until August. |
| Late May | Numbers start easing as birds settle onto territory. Nesting is underway. |
What to do: Keep it full — this is the month a new feeder gets found. And if you plant one thing, make it eastern red columbine: it blooms now, exactly when the birds land.
June
The lull that fools everyone.
| Statewide | Reports drop by about a third from the May high and sit flat all month. |
| Why | Females are sitting on nests. A hummingbird incubating two eggs leaves for only a few minutes at a time — she's still there, just not where you can see her. |
What to do: Don't take a quiet June feeder as the season ending. It's the middle of the breeding season, and the busiest stretch of the year is eight weeks away. Skip the insecticide too — nesting females need small insects and spiders for protein, and spider silk is what binds the nest together.
July
The young start flying.
| Statewide | Climbing steadily all month as fledglings join the adults at feeders. |
| Departures | Some adult males are already leaving. Their part of the season ends first. |
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 — and you'll need the capacity next month.
August
The biggest month of the year, and it ends the season.
| All month | Climbing week on week to the year's high point in the final week of August. |
| Who's here | Mostly females and this year's young, fueling for the trip. Many adult males have already gone. |
| Why so early | Georgia and Alabama peak in September, Florida in October. New England birds start earlier because they have farther to travel. |
What to do: Be generous. This is the month that matters most, and it's also the month most people have stopped paying attention.
September
A fast, orderly exit.
| Week 1 | Still busy, just off the peak. |
| Weeks 2–4 | Falls away by roughly half each week. By month's end there's very little left. |
| Berkshires | A few days ahead of the coast, as in spring. |
What to do: Keep it up. The last birds through are usually that summer's young making the trip for the first time, and a feeder left standing does not delay anyone — hummingbirds migrate on day length, not food supply.
October
Effectively over by the first week.
| Week 1 | A final scattering of stragglers. |
| Rest of month | Essentially nothing. |
| Planting | Prime wildflower sowing window opens — aim for around the first frost. |
What to do: Leave one feeder up into early October for the last stragglers, then bring it in before hard freezes become common. Frozen nectar can injure a hummingbird's bill. And sow the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend now — Massachusetts winters give most of the varieties exactly the cold, moist stratification they need.
November & December
Season over — and the most interesting months for a birder.
| Statewide | Ruby-throated are long gone. |
| Cape Cod & the Islands | Vagrant season. Black-chinned records cluster from late October to mid-December. Calliope records run late October through December. Rufous can appear any time from late July onward and occasionally stay all winter. |
Why November is when Massachusetts gets interesting
Every one of the state's six accepted hummingbird species except Ruby-throated is a western or southwestern bird that has no business being here. Almost all of them are found in late fall or early winter, and almost all on Cape Cod, Nantucket, or Martha's Vineyard.
They're found because somebody left a feeder up. The state's only Broad-billed Hummingbird spent from late August to early December 2008 in a Dennis garden. If something turns up at your feeder in November, photograph it and tell a local birding group — female and immature hummingbirds usually can't be named without a licensed bander measuring them in the hand.
The Year at a Glance
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Last week of April | Feeders up statewide; first arrivals |
| Mid-May | Spring high point; females arriving |
| June | The nesting lull — quiet feeders are normal |
| May – July | Nesting season; usually one brood, occasionally two |
| Last week of August | Peak of the year |
| September | Fast departure; halving week on week |
| Early October | Last stragglers; feeders down before hard freezes |
| October – November | Sow wildflower seed, around the first frost |
| November – December | Vagrant season on the Cape and Islands |
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 Massachusetts covering 2016 through 2025 — more than 1.8 million submitted sighting lists — and read the seasonal shape directly off the reporting rates. Feeder timing and nesting biology are cross-checked against Mass Audubon, and rarity records against the Massachusetts Avian Records Committee.
We looked at whether Massachusetts needed separate regional calendars and concluded it doesn't. Across a state under 190 miles wide, the arrival difference between the Berkshires and the coast is a matter of days, not weeks — not enough to justify separate schedules.
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.
Sources
- eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Massachusetts statewide, 2016–2025. Source for all month-by-month seasonal figures.
- Mass Audubon — Breeding Bird Atlas 2, feeder timing, nectar recipe, and nesting biology.
- Massachusetts Avian Records Committee — accepted rarity records and their dates.
- des Lauriers, J. R. (1994). Hummingbirds eating ashes. The Auk, 111(3), 755–756.
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.
