Jul 26, 2026
Oregon Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar
Updated July 2026 · Timing derived from eBird data, 2016–2025
Oregon doesn't really have a hummingbird season. West of the Cascades it has hummingbirds every week of the year, and the interesting question isn't whether they're around but which ones, and what they're doing. The quietest week of the Oregon year still has a hummingbird on roughly one bird list in five.
New to feeding hummingbirds? Start with our guide to attracting hummingbirds in Oregon for feeders, nectar, and native plants. This page is the timing deep dive.
Here's the whole year, month by month.
Regions used below
South Coast — Coos Bay, Bandon, Curry County
North & Central Coast — Newport, Astoria, Tillamook
Willamette Valley — Portland, Salem, Eugene
Southern Oregon — Medford, Ashland, Grants Pass
East of the Cascades — Bend, Burns, Ontario
The Cascade crest is the line that matters. Everything west of it has hummingbirds year-round; everything east of it has a season.
January
Anna's country, and nesting is already starting.
| Willamette Valley | Anna's on roughly four bird lists in ten around Portland. In January. |
| Coast | Anna's near their winter high, particularly on the south coast. |
| Southern Oregon | Climbing toward a February peak. |
| East of the Cascades | The year's low point. Anna's are scarce here in winter. |
Keeping a feeder going through an Oregon winter
Nectar starts to freeze around 27°F. Rotate two feeders, swapping at dawn and dusk; use a heated feeder or feeder warmer; or hang an incandescent bulb nearby — LEDs won't help, since they produce almost no heat. A dark baffle above the feeder collects what winter sun there is.
Clean it more often than you would in summer. A heated feeder is warm sugar water, which is exactly what mould wants.
February
The first Rufous arrive — and Anna's are building nests.
| Week 2 | First Rufous reach the south coast — Coos Bay and Bandon. This is the earliest hummingbird arrival anywhere in this 50-state series. |
| Weeks 3–4 | Rufous reach the north and central coast and southern Oregon. |
| Anna's | Their reporting peak in southern Oregon and on the south coast. Nest-building underway in Portland gardens by mid-to-late month. |
| Plants | Red-flowering currant begins blooming — the whole reason the timing works. |
What to do: If you're on the coast or in southern Oregon and haven't got a feeder out, this is late rather than early. Anna's have been here all winter and Rufous are arriving now.
March
Rufous flood the west side.
| Week 1 | First Rufous in the Willamette Valley. |
| Late March | Rufous peak on the south coast — their high point there for the year. |
| Statewide | Reports climb steeply all month as the coastal migration builds. |
| East of the Cascades | Still waiting. Nothing yet. |
April
The busiest month in the state, and the east finally opens.
| Statewide | Peak of the Oregon year — Anna's and Rufous together on more than a third of all bird lists. |
| Coast & Valley | Rufous peak — the northbound wave at full strength. |
| Mid-April | First Rufous reach Bend — nine weeks after the south coast. Put feeders out east of the Cascades. |
| Calliope | Arriving in the eastern mountains. |
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 and camouflaged with lichen, laying two eggs about the size of coffee beans, incubating roughly sixteen days, then feeding the young for weeks after. Anna's do this two and sometimes three times a season, starting in December.
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.
May
The northbound wave passes through and out.
| Coast & Valley | Rufous falling away sharply as migrants move on north into Washington and British Columbia. |
| East of the Cascades | Calliope peak around Bend — close to eight percent of bird lists in the final week. |
| Black-chinned | Arriving in the eastern canyons and desert riparian. |
June
The quietest month of the Oregon year.
| Statewide | The low point — roughly one bird list in five, against more than one in three in April. |
| Why | The spring migrants have gone north, and the resident Anna's have dispersed from feeders into gardens and natural habitat where there's plenty of natural nectar. |
| Not a departure | Nothing has left the west side. They're just harder to see. |
What to do: Don't take this as the season ending — it's the trough between two waves. Keep the feeder clean and full; the birds are still there.
July
The return begins, and it starts in the east.
| East of the Cascades | Rufous peak around Bend in the final week — the southbound migration coming down through the interior. |
| Southern Oregon | Climbing hard toward an August peak. |
| West side | Anna's beginning to return to feeders as summer flowers fade. |
What to do: Add a second feeder if you're seeing chasing. Rufous will try to run every other hummingbird off a single feeder — place two out of sight of each other.
August
Southern Oregon's biggest month.
| Southern Oregon | Rufous peak around Medford — four months after the coast peaked, and higher. |
| East of the Cascades | Anna's climbing toward their September high — the reverse of the west-side pattern. |
| Coast & Valley | Rufous largely finished. Anna's rebuilding. |
September
The migrants clear out; Anna's take over.
| Rufous | Collapsing statewide. By month's end there are very few left anywhere. |
| East of the Cascades | Anna's peak around Bend — their high point of the year, at the exact opposite end of the calendar from the west side. |
| Southern Oregon | Anna's at their second annual high. |
October
The migrants are gone. Everything left is Anna's.
| Statewide | Rufous, Calliope and Black-chinned effectively finished for the year. |
| West of the Cascades | Anna's climbing back toward their winter high. |
| Planting | Prime wildflower sowing window west of the Cascades. |
What to do: Sow the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend now if you're west of the Cascades — let the wet winter do the stratification. East of the crest, wait for early spring instead.
November
The east closes. The west doesn't.
| East of the Cascades | Anna's drop away sharply. If nothing has visited in a fortnight, take the feeder down. |
| West of the Cascades | Anna's steady and rising. Leave the feeder up and start thinking about freezing nights. |
December
Winter high on the coast, and nesting starts.
| North & Central Coast | Anna's reach their annual high around Newport — in December. |
| Willamette Valley | Anna's climbing back toward 40 percent of bird lists. |
| Nesting | Anna's begin nesting this month. Eggs have been recorded in December. |
What to do: Keep it thawed and keep it clean. There is a hummingbird nesting in western Oregon in December, and your feeder may be the most reliable thing in her territory.
The Year at a Glance
| When | What |
|---|---|
| December | Anna's begin nesting; coastal winter high |
| Mid-February | First Rufous on the south coast; red-flowering currant blooms |
| Early March | Rufous reach the Willamette Valley |
| April | Peak of the year statewide; Rufous peak on coast and valley; feeders out east of the Cascades |
| Late May | Calliope peak in the eastern mountains |
| June | The trough — quietest month of the year |
| Late July | Rufous peak around Bend, heading south |
| August | Rufous peak around Medford |
| September | Anna's peak east of the Cascades; migrants clear out |
| October – November | Sow wildflower seed west of the Cascades; take east-side feeders down |
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 Oregon covering 2016 through 2025, plus five counties chosen to represent each part of the state — Coos for the south coast, Lincoln for the north and central coast, Multnomah for the Willamette Valley, Jackson for southern Oregon, and Deschutes for east of the Cascades — and read the seasonal shape directly off the reporting rates.
We then checked those windows against Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and OSU Extension guidance, and against the published research on Anna's northward expansion and Rufous arrival phenology.
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. One consequence worth knowing: Oregon's birding effort is concentrated west of the Cascades, so east-side species like Calliope and Black-chinned look scarcer in statewide figures than they actually are on the ground.
Sources
- eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Oregon statewide plus Coos, Lincoln, Multnomah, Jackson, and Deschutes counties, 2016–2025.
- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife — Hummingbirds.
- Oregon State University Extension — Hummingbird Visitors to Pacific Northwest Gardens. Source for nectar, cleaning, and winter feeding guidance.
- Bird Alliance of Oregon — Anna's nesting timing and early-blooming natives.
- Battey, C. J. (2019). Ecological release of the Anna's Hummingbird during a northern range expansion. The American Naturalist, 194(3).
- Courter, J. R. (2017). Changes in spring arrival dates of Rufous Hummingbirds in western North America in the past century. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 129(3), 535–544.
- 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.
