Jul 25, 2026
Texas Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar
Updated July 2026 · Timing derived from eBird data, 2016–2025
Texas is big enough that a single date is never the right answer. The first hummingbirds reach Big Bend nearly a month before they arrive in Dallas, and South Texas never really has an off-season at all.
New to feeding hummingbirds? Start with our guide to attracting hummingbirds in Texas for feeders, nectar, and native plants. This page is the timing deep dive.
Here's the whole year, month by month, broken out by region wherever the timing actually differs.
Regions used below
Valley — Rio Grande Valley (McAllen, Brownsville)
Coast — Corpus Christi to Houston
Central — Austin, San Antonio, the Hill Country
North — Dallas, Fort Worth, the Panhandle
West — Alpine, Marathon, Big Bend, the Davis Mountains
One thing to know before you start
Most of this calendar describes birds arriving and leaving. The Rio Grande Valley is the exception — Buff-bellied and Black-chinned Hummingbirds are reported there every week of the year, and Ruby-throated are present ten months out of twelve. If you live south of Kingsville, the useful question isn't when hummingbirds arrive. It's which ones are around this month.
January
Winter residents only, and only in the south.
| Valley | Three species, all month. Buff-bellied, Black-chinned and Ruby-throated are all present through the depths of winter. |
| Coast | Ruby-throated and Buff-bellied in smaller numbers — plus wintering Rufous, which peak here in the first week of January. |
| Central & West | Wintering Rufous, in small but reliable numbers. |
| North | Essentially none. |
What to do: South of San Antonio, keep the feeder up and clean. Nectar spoils slowly in winter, but a neglected feeder is worse than no feeder. Everywhere else, a winter feeder is a lottery ticket — the prize is a western vagrant.
February
The month feeders go up in half the state.
| Week 1–2 | Feeders up in West Texas. Hummingbirds arrive here earlier than almost anywhere in the state. |
| Week 3–4 | Feeders up in Central Texas. |
| Valley & Coast | Ruby-throated numbers already climbing. |
Pop's tip: 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 dividends for seasons.
March
Arrival month, and the start of nesting.
| Week 1 | First Broad-tailed Hummingbirds reach West Texas. Black-chinned follow mid-month. |
| Week 2 | Black-chinned arrive in Central Texas and along the Coast. |
| Week 3 | Black-chinned numbers crest in the Valley — their highest of the year there. |
| Week 4 | Ruby-throated arrive in Central and North Texas. Feeders up in North Texas and the Panhandle. |
| Late March | Nesting season opens statewide. |
What to do: Feeders up everywhere by month's end. Watch for males chasing each other — territorial behavior is the first real sign the season has started.
April
Peak spring migration, and the demanding part of the year for females.
| Valley & Coast | Ruby-throated pouring north. Peak spring numbers. |
| Central & West | Black-chinned settling onto breeding territory. Nesting underway. |
| North | Ruby-throated and Black-chinned both establishing. |
Why nesting season is the demanding one
A nesting female lays two eggs, incubates for 12 to 14 days, feeds young in the nest for around 21 days, then keeps feeding them for at least a week after they fledge. That's roughly seven weeks of sustained effort per brood — and many raise two 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 holds a hummingbird nest together.
May
The spring wave finishes; the south empties out.
| Valley & Coast | Ruby-throated clear out almost entirely by month's end. They were passing through, not staying. |
| North | Black-chinned peak for the year in early May — most are passing through rather than staying to nest. |
| Central & West | Breeding in full swing. |
What to do: Heat changes everything. Above 90°F, change nectar every one to two days. Fill the feeder only as full as your birds will drink in a couple of days — a half-full clean feeder beats a full sour one.
June
The lull — and it's regional.
| Valley & Coast | Ruby-throated entirely absent in June and July. The quietest stretch of the year. |
| Central & West | Black-chinned on territory and nesting. Busy. |
What to do: Don't read a quiet feeder as the end of the season. In South Texas, June is the pause before the biggest month of the year.
July
Black-chinned peak inland; the first Rufous appear west.
| Central | Black-chinned at their peak. Second broods underway. |
| West | First adult male Rufous arrive — they head south remarkably early, well ahead of females and young. Black-chinned are climbing toward their own late-summer peak. |
| Valley | Still empty of Ruby-throated. Buff-bellied hold steady. |
What to do: Add a second feeder if you're seeing chasing. Hummingbirds defend food they can see all of, so two feeders placed out of sight of each other will support far more birds than one.
August
The fall build begins.
| West | The busiest month in Big Bend. Rufous surge through — from none in June to one of the commonest birds at a feeder by mid-August — and Black-chinned hit their own peak in the last week of the month. Two abundant species at once. |
| Statewide | Ruby-throated numbers climbing everywhere. |
| Valley & Coast | Ruby-throated return, and fast. |
Events: The Davis Mountains Hummingbird Celebration in Fort Davis runs in late August every other year — field trips, seminars, and a banquet. Registration is usually required in advance.
What to do: Keep everything full. Birds are fuelling for a Gulf crossing or a long overland flight, and a reliable feeder in August matters more than one in April.
September
The biggest month of the year, nearly everywhere in Texas.
| Valley | Peak. Ruby-throated go from absent in July to a bird at nearly every feeder by mid-September. |
| Coast | Peak. The great staging grounds before the Gulf crossing. Rufous pass through in their own smaller wave in the first week. |
| Central & North | Peak, then a fast decline through the month. |
| West | Peak diversity. Rufous, Black-chinned, Broad-tailed, Calliope and more, all at once. |
Events — three festivals, all in September:
- Rockport-Fulton HummerBird Celebration (Rockport and Fulton) — one of the most established hummingbird festivals in the country, built around the fall Ruby-throated migration along the Gulf Coast. Speaker programs, guided birding trips, hummingbird home tours, and public banding demonstrations. Annual.
- Xtreme Hummingbird Xtravaganza at the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory (Lake Jackson) — a public banding celebration during peak migration, with symbolic hummingbird adoptions and live banding demonstrations. Annual.
- Hummingbird Festival at Kleb Woods Nature Center (Tomball) — a free, long-running community event with live banding, guided nature walks, and a historic homestead tour. Annual.
What to do: More feeders, filled more often. This is the month to be generous.
October
Inland empties; the south stays busy; the planting month.
| Central & North | Numbers fall away through the month. Last stragglers are usually that summer's young. |
| Valley & Coast | Still busy. No real drop-off. |
| West | Rufous thinning out; a few settle in for winter. |
What to do: This is the wildflower month. Sow the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend from late September into early 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
Winter settles in.
| Central, North & West | Quiet. Wintering Rufous begin settling in across the centre of the state. |
| Valley & Coast | Buff-bellied and Ruby-throated both present. No off-season here. |
What to do: Take feeders down about two weeks after your last sighting — a better guide than any date, because it accounts for your own yard and this year's weather. South of San Antonio, don't take them down at all.
December
Winter residents only.
| Valley | Buff-bellied, Black-chinned and Ruby-throated all present. The Valley genuinely has no off-season. |
| Coast | Ruby-throated in modest numbers. |
| Central & West | Wintering Rufous. Occasionally something rarer. |
What to do: If you're keeping a winter feeder, report what turns up. Winter hummingbirds in Texas are of real interest to researchers, and many are only identified once a licensed bander gets a look in the hand.
The Year at a Glance
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Mid-February | Feeders up in West Texas |
| Late February | Feeders up in Central Texas |
| Mid-March | Feeders up in North Texas and the Panhandle |
| Late March – early September | Nesting season |
| June – July | The lull in South Texas; peak breeding inland |
| September | Peak month statewide, and festival season |
| October | Sow wildflower seed |
| Two weeks after your last sighting | Feeders down — except south of San Antonio, where they stay up year-round |
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 Texas and for five counties chosen to represent each region, covering 2016 through 2025, and read the arrival and departure weeks directly off the reporting rates.
A region's "first arrivals" week is the first week in which reporting rises clearly above the off-season baseline and keeps climbing — a rule designed to distinguish genuine new arrivals from the handful of birds that overwinter. Feeder dates are set two weeks ahead of that.
Sources
- eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Texas statewide plus Hidalgo, Nueces, Travis, Dallas, and Brewster counties, 2016–2025. Source for all arrival, departure, peak, and species frequency figures.
- Texas Breeding Bird Atlas — Black-chinned Hummingbird, Texas A&M University. Source for clutch size, incubation period, and nestling period.
- Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — breeding season dates for Texas hummingbirds.
- des Lauriers, J. R. (1994). Hummingbirds eating ashes. The Auk, 111(3), 755–756. Documents nesting female Broad-tailed, Blue-throated, Costa's, and Anna's Hummingbirds consuming calcium-rich wood ash; males were never observed doing so.
- Estades, C. F., Vukasovic, M. A., & Tomasevic, J. A. (2008). Giant Hummingbirds (Patagona gigas) ingest calcium-rich minerals. The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, 120(3), 651–653.
- Zenzal, T. J., & Moore, F. R. (2016). Stopover biology of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) during autumn migration. The Auk, 133(2), 237–250.
Festival dates and formats change from year to year. Check organizer websites before making travel 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.
