Quick overview: There is no such thing as "hummingbird season" in North America. In any given week, hummingbirds are nesting in one part of the continent, wintering in another, flying north in a third, and already heading south in a fourth — all at the same time. A Rufous leaving Oregon in July passes birds still raising chicks in Georgia. An Anna's incubating eggs in a California December shares the continent with a Minnesota yard that won't see a hummingbird for five more months. This is the big picture, and where to go next for the close-ups.

The Continent Runs Eight Calendars at Once

Most migration writing describes a wave — birds move north in spring, south in fall, and everyone follows roughly the same schedule a few weeks apart.

That isn't what the map shows. Cornell's eBird Status and Trends publishes weekly abundance animations that "visualize the changes in abundance at weekly intervals shedding light on continental-scale patterns," and watching the hummingbird ones is genuinely disorienting. Colour drains out of the north while it floods the desert. Two species cross paths moving opposite directions. One region empties as another fills.

Below is the year as it actually unfolds — and each season points to the regional guide that covers it properly.

Winter: Most of the Continent Is Empty. Some of It Is Nesting.

December through February is the season people assume is uneventful. It's the most geographically split part of the year.

California is nesting. Anna's Hummingbird begins courtship and egg-laying as early as December — while the rest of the country's hummingbirds are in Mexico. Pacific & West →

The Gulf Coast is hosting westerners. Louisiana gardens regularly draw seven hummingbird species in winter, per Loyola University's Center for Environmental Communication, with Rufous the likeliest. The Louisiana Ornithological Society notes winter Ruby-throateds there are "almost always greatly outnumbered by several western species." Southeast →

The low desert is getting ready. Costa's times its whole breeding season to the winter and early-spring desert bloom; abundance peaks in March and April, meaning courtship is underway while the north is frozen. Southwest →

Idaho has hummingbirds in January. Boise State's Intermountain Bird Observatory now collects as many as 200 Anna's observations every winter, and documented a Boise nest built in February. Mountain West →

So does southeastern Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recorded 21 Anna's on the Ketchikan Christmas Bird Count in December 2021 — all at feeders.

And the entire northern tier has none at all. From the Dakotas to Maine, zero.

Spring: Four Different Springs, Weeks Apart

Spring migration isn't one front moving north. It's several unrelated events that happen to share a season.

Late February, the Oregon coast. Rufous is already arriving — earlier than almost any migratory hummingbird in the country — into territory that resident Anna's have held all winter. Pacific Northwest →

Early March, the Gulf Coast. Ruby-throateds arrive in numbers, per Audubon, having either crossed the Gulf or come around it. Males land about a week ahead of females; Journey North puts the gap at roughly ten days.

April, the Great Plains. Birds spread west until they hit an invisible wall — Ruby-throated's breeding range ends along a strikingly straight line just east of the 100th meridian, where the trees run out. Great Plains →

May, the northern edge. The Midwest and New England fill last. In northern Minnesota and Maine, birds arrive before most flowers open. Midwest → · Northeast & Mid-Atlantic →

Hold those together: while Maine waits for its first bird of the year in late May, California's Anna's are on their second brood and the desert's Costa's have already finished nesting and left.

Summer: The North Breeds While the West Goes Home

Here's the fact that breaks the wave model entirely.

In early July, Rufous starts south. Cornell puts it plainly: Rufous move up the Pacific Coast in late winter and spring, reaching British Columbia by May, and "as early as July they may start south again, traveling down the chain of the Rocky Mountains."

So in the second week of July, a Ruby-throated in Ohio is feeding nestlings while a Rufous over Montana is already migrating. Same species family, same week, opposite directions.

Those southbound Rufous cause trouble when they land. Arriving in Colorado meadows, they displace Broad-tailed Hummingbirds from territories those birds have defended since May. Mountain West →

And the desert gets a second spring. Monsoon rains break in early July, ending a long dry season and triggering a fresh bloom just as the migrants arrive. Southwest →

Fall: The Funnel

By September the continent is draining in two directions at once.

Southeastern Arizona hits peak diversity. Banding work there recorded a massive southbound passage — Black-chinned peaking first, then Rufous (mostly juveniles), then Anna's. It's the busiest hummingbird month in the country's most species-rich region.

The Southeast fattens for open water. Departing Ruby-throateds face a nonstop crossing with nowhere to land, and the plants blooming in September do more for them than anything else in the yard. Southeast →

Western birds turn up in the East. Rufous most often, but Calliope, Allen's, Black-chinned and others appear at eastern feeders from October onward — which is the single best argument for leaving a feeder up past the point it seems useful.

And some birds simply don't go. Anna's, Costa's, and Buff-bellied stay where they are, and the cycle starts again.

What Actually Triggers It

This is the most persistent myth in backyard birding, so it's worth stating flatly: hummingbirds do not migrate because food runs out or because it gets cold.

Migration runs on day length. Robart, McGuire and Watts (2018, Royal Society Open Science) put the mechanism directly: "increasing day length triggers the expression of a spring migratory state and androgens play an important role in stimulating its development."

The practical consequence matters. Leaving a feeder up does not delay migration, and taking one down early does not hurry it along. All it changes is whether a bird passing through your yard finds fuel when it needs it.

The Fuel Problem

Before the longest legs of the journey, hummingbirds enter hyperphagia — a period of intense feeding that converts nectar and insects into fat.

The famous version is the Ruby-throated's Gulf of Mexico crossing: roughly 500 miles of open water with nowhere to land, completed in 18 to 22 hours according to the USDA Forest Service, which also notes those birds "nearly double their weight (from about 3.25 grams to 6 grams) before crossing." Not every bird takes that route — some follow the coast around through Texas — and Cornell is candid that the proportion doing each "is largely unknown," possibly differing between spring and fall.

But the doubling figure belongs to that specific crossing, not to hummingbirds generally. On breeding grounds the picture is messier and more interesting. Hou and Welch (2016, Animal Behaviour) found some adults adding 35 to 40% of their body mass in four days while others barely fattened at all — and notably, no juveniles fattened before departure. Young birds leave lean and refuel along the way, which suggests the strategy is partly learned rather than purely instinctive.

How They Find Their Way — and What We Don't Know

Hummingbirds migrate alone. Not in flocks, and — to dispose of a myth that refuses to die — not on the backs of geese, which migrate at different times, altitudes, and destinations entirely.

They fly low, following coastlines, river valleys, and mountain ridges that double as navigation landmarks and feeding stops.

What's remarkable is the precision. Banding has shown individual birds returning to the same yard year after year: a Rufous banded in Mississippi turned up at the identical Pennsylvania feeder in a later year, and one female wintered in the same Massachusetts greenhouse for at least six consecutive years.

How they do it is genuinely unsettled. There are no hummingbird-specific navigation experiments — the compass research has been done on other birds, and applying it here is inference rather than evidence. A 2025 analysis also found only weak evidence that particular breeding populations use particular routes. So: we know they come back. We don't know how they know.

Not Every Species Migrates the Same Way — or at All

• Rufous Hummingbird — the distance champion. Cornell describes its roughly 3,900-mile one-way trip from Alaska to Mexico as "one of the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size" — equivalent to 78,470,000 body lengths.
• Calliope Hummingbird — the smallest bird in the United States, and "the smallest long-distance migrant in the world," covering about 5,000 miles a year in a great oval.
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird — the only breeding hummingbird across most of eastern North America, and the one that crosses the Gulf.
• Anna's Hummingbird — often called non-migratory, which oversimplifies it. Many are year-round residents, but the species is a facultative and partial migrant: research documents post-breeding movement to higher elevations and southeastward shifts from California into Arizona and New Mexico. It now overwinters as far inland as Boise and as far north as coastal Alaska.

That last point is the one worth sitting with: the same species can be a permanent resident in one region and a genuine migrant in another.

Where the Numbers Are Going

At continental scale, North American hummingbirds are splitting into two groups moving in opposite directions.

English and colleagues (2021, Scientific Reports) found that "among the Selasphorus genus, Allen's, rufous, and broad-tailed hummingbirds have declined since 1970, and the rate of decline increased from 2009 to 2019." Ruby-throated has declined since roughly 2004 across most of its breeding range. Rufous is down about 65%; Allen's about 88%.

And in the same study: "Anna's hummingbird populations have increased dramatically since 1970."

The pattern is hard to miss. The species adapting to human landscapes — gardens, feeders, suburbs — are gaining. The long-distance specialists tied to particular habitats are losing. It's the same story the regional guides tell one region at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do hummingbirds migrate because they run out of food?

No. Migration is triggered by changing day length and the hormonal cascade that follows — research published in Royal Society Open Science in 2018 found that "increasing day length triggers the expression of a spring migratory state." Food availability and temperature don't set the schedule.

Does leaving my feeder up delay migration?

No. This is the most persistent myth in backyard birding. A bird scheduled to leave will leave. What a late feeder changes is whether that bird — or a late migrant passing through — finds fuel when it needs it.

When is hummingbird season?

There isn't one, nationally. In February, Rufous are arriving in Oregon while Minnesota is empty and California's Anna's are already nesting. In July, Rufous are heading south while Ruby-throateds in the Midwest are still raising young. Your season depends entirely on where you are — which is what the eight regional guides are for.

How far do hummingbirds migrate?

It varies enormously. Rufous flies roughly 3,900 miles one way from Alaska to Mexico, which Cornell calls one of the longest journeys of any bird relative to body size. Calliope covers about 5,000 miles a year and is the smallest long-distance migrant in the world. Anna's may not leave its neighbourhood at all.

Do hummingbirds really cross the Gulf of Mexico nonstop?

Many Ruby-throateds do — about 500 miles of open water in 18 to 22 hours, with nowhere to land. Others follow the coast around through Texas instead. Cornell notes the proportion taking each route is largely unknown, and it may differ between spring and fall.

Do they really double their body weight first?

Birds staging for the Gulf crossing come close, going from about 3.25 grams to 6. But that's specific to that crossing. On breeding grounds, one study found some adults adding 35 to 40% of their mass in four days while others barely fattened — and no juveniles fattened at all before leaving.

Do hummingbirds migrate in flocks?

No — they travel alone, flying low and following coastlines, river valleys, and ridgelines. And no, they don't ride on the backs of geese. Geese migrate at different times, to different places, at different altitudes.

How do they find their way?

Honestly, nobody knows. Banding proves individual birds return to the same yards year after year — one Rufous banded in Mississippi reappeared at the same Pennsylvania feeder, and one female wintered in the same Massachusetts greenhouse six years running. But no navigation experiments have been done on hummingbirds specifically, so the mechanism remains an open question.

How We Know This

Continental movement patterns come from eBird Status and Trends (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). Species timing and distance figures come from All About Birds and Birds of the World. The migration trigger comes from Robart, McGuire & Watts (2018, Royal Society Open Science). Gulf crossing and fattening figures come from the USDA Forest Service and Hou & Welch (2016, Animal Behaviour). Spring timing draws on Audubon and the Louisiana Ornithological Society. Winter records come from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Boise State's Intermountain Bird Observatory. Population trends come from English et al. (2021, Scientific Reports).

Key Takeaways

• There is no single hummingbird season in North America — birds are nesting, wintering, arriving, and departing simultaneously in different regions all year
• Migration is triggered by day length, not by food or cold; a feeder left up changes nothing about the schedule
• Anna's may nest in California in December while the northern tier holds no hummingbirds at all
• Rufous begins flying south in early July, while Ruby-throateds farther east are still raising young
• The Gulf crossing runs about 500 miles in 18 to 22 hours; birds staging for it nearly double their weight, though that extreme fattening is specific to that flight
• No juveniles were found to fatten before departure in one breeding-ground study — suggesting the strategy is partly learned
• The same species can be a year-round resident in one region and a long-distance migrant in another
• Species adapting to human landscapes are increasing; long-distance specialists are declining, some steeply

At Pop's Birding, we believe every backyard — big or small — has room for a little more wonder. Explore our feeders, nectars, swings, and wildflower seed blends to start building your own hummingbird sanctuary today.