Timing derived from eBird data, 2016–2025 (sourced Aug 2026)

Most states in this series have a "hummingbird season" — a window when birds show up, and a quiet stretch when they don't. Arizona doesn't really work that way. Anna's Hummingbird is present in every single week of the year, statewide, and Broad-billed and Costa's both hold a real presence through the winter too. What actually changes month to month isn't "are there hummingbirds" — it's which of the state's 16 species are added on top of that baseline, and how many are stacked up at once. That stacking peaks hard in a specific two-month window, and Ruby-throated — common practically everywhere else in the country — is genuinely Arizona's rarest visitor. Here's how the whole year actually unfolds.

The short answer: Anna's year-round everywhere; Black-chinned and the rest of the migratory breeders arrive by March–April; the real diversity peak lands in August–September; most seasonal species are gone by late October.

New to feeding hummingbirds? Start with our guide to attracting hummingbirds in Arizona for species, feeders, nectar, and native plants. This page is the timing deep dive.

Arizona's Hummingbird Season at a Glance

Sixteen species, several of them present nearly year-round, made a single seasonal line chart the wrong tool for this state. Instead, here's every genuinely common species, one row each, colored by how it compares to its own peak — so you can see who's around and when, all at once, without one dominant bird flattening the rest.

Bar height shows each week's frequency relative to that species' own peak — statewide, eBird checklist data (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), 2016–2025 (pulled Aug 2026). Also documented but too rare to chart reliably: Allen's, Berylline, Calliope, Lucifer, Plain-capped Starthroat, Ruby-throated, and White-eared Hummingbird.

January: The Quiet Baseline

Anna's holds steady in the high 20s to low 30s percent, Broad-billed sits around 5%, and Costa's is building slowly from its own winter low. Black-chinned, Rufous, and Broad-tailed are essentially zero statewide. This is Arizona's quietest stretch, but "quiet" here still means three species reliably at your feeder.

February: Costa's Starts Climbing

Anna's keeps climbing toward its own spring peak (32–35%), and Costa's picks up real momentum, moving from around 8% to nearly 10% by month's end — the first sign of its distinctive spring-focused pattern. Broad-billed ticks up modestly. The migratory breeders are still dormant.

March: Costa's Peak, and the First Migrants

Costa's hits its statewide peak this month, around 11% — genuinely different from every other common species here, which all peak in summer or fall. At the same time, March is when the season actually turns: Broad-billed roughly doubles (10% to 19%), and Black-chinned goes from essentially absent to a real presence (under 1% to over 10%) within the month. Rufous and Broad-tailed both show their first spring-passage signal too.

April: Black-chinned's Explosive Arrival

Black-chinned completes its arrival this month, jumping from 10% to over 20% and holding there — genuinely one of the fastest species onsets we've measured in any state. Broad-billed reaches its own spring high (around 21%). Anna's, meanwhile, is heading into its annual low as it eases off its spring peak. Rufous's smaller spring passage peaks here too, around 4%, before fading fast.

May: The Broad-tailed Build

Broad-tailed climbs to its own strong early peak this month (11–12%), while Black-chinned and Broad-billed both hold at steady, high plateau levels. Anna's continues its seasonal dip toward the year's lowest numbers (under 20%) — still genuinely common, just not at its own peak. Rufous has essentially disappeared for the season; it won't be back in force until July.

June: The Mid-Summer Plateau

Black-chinned, Broad-billed, and Broad-tailed all hold at a fairly flat, steady mid-range through June — the closest thing Arizona's calendar has to a lull, though even this "lull" means three species reliably present. Anna's begins climbing back from its spring low. Rufous is still essentially absent, deep in its own breeding season far to the north.

July: Rufous Returns, Fast

Rufous makes its return in dramatic fashion this month, climbing from under 4% to nearly 11% in four weeks — the opening of its major fall migration surge. Everything else holds steady to slightly rising. This is the pivot point where Arizona's year shifts from "steady baseline" to "building toward the peak."

August: The Diversity Peak

August is Arizona's busiest month, and it's not close. Broad-billed hits its own statewide peak here (nearly 24%). Rufous keeps climbing hard, reaching 13–17.5% by month's end. Broad-tailed peaks too, around 12–13.5%. Anna's is climbing back toward its own fall peak. This is the stretch Sedona's Hummingbird Festival and the sky-island canyons are built around — genuinely more species, at genuinely higher numbers, all at once than any other month.

September: Anna's Takes Over as the Migrants Start to Leave

Anna's keeps climbing (32–34%) while the migratory breeders begin to leave: Black-chinned drops from 20% to 11%, Rufous falls from 16% to under 9%, Broad-tailed from 10% to under 4%. Broad-billed eases down too. September is the handoff month — the summer's stacked diversity thinning out even as Anna's heads into its own peak.

October: Anna's Peak, and the Migrants Leave

Anna's hits its statewide peak this month, over 36% in some weeks — the single highest number any species reaches all year. At the same time, the migratory breeders leave fast: Black-chinned falls from 8% to under 1%, Rufous from 6% to under 1%, Broad-tailed to nearly nothing. By month's end, Arizona has largely reverted to its winter baseline of Anna's, Broad-billed, and Costa's.

November: Back to Baseline

Black-chinned, Rufous, and Broad-tailed are all essentially gone statewide. Anna's eases down from its October peak but stays dominant (31–34%). Broad-billed and Costa's both hold steady at their own winter levels. This is functionally the same three-species baseline January opened with.

December: The Year Closes the Loop

Anna's settles into its winter range (29–32%), Costa's holds steady to slightly rising heading into its own spring build-up, and Broad-billed stays level. Nothing from the migratory breeders. December looks almost identical to January — which is the point: Arizona's "quiet" months are quiet only relative to August, not relative to most other states' actual off-season.

The Year at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

Are hummingbirds in Arizona year-round?

Yes, genuinely. Anna's Hummingbird is present in all 48 weeks of the year, statewide, and Broad-billed and Costa's are both close behind with their own real winter presence. Arizona doesn't have an off-season the way most states do — what changes is how many additional species stack on top of that baseline.

When do hummingbirds leave Arizona?

The migratory breeders leave fast in October — Black-chinned, Rufous, and Broad-tailed all drop from double digits to under 1% within the month. But Anna's, Broad-billed, and Costa's never really leave at all, so "leaving" only describes part of the picture here.

What's the busiest month for hummingbirds in Arizona?

August, by a clear margin. Broad-billed hits its statewide peak, Rufous is deep into its fall surge, and Broad-tailed is near its own high point — all three overlapping at once, on top of Anna's climbing back toward its own October peak. This is the window Sedona's Hummingbird Festival and the sky-island canyons are timed around.

Why do I see fewer hummingbirds in Phoenix in May than in March?

Because Anna's, the desert's dominant species, has its own genuine seasonal dip through late spring, easing off its March peak toward its lowest numbers of the year by May. It's a real pattern, not a sign anything's wrong — Anna's climbs right back through summer toward an even higher peak in October.

Is Ruby-throated Hummingbird ever seen in Arizona?

Rarely, and it's a genuine surprise to most people: Ruby-throated is common practically everywhere else in the eastern half of the country, but in Arizona it's the one species the state's own bird records committee still requires individual documentation for. If you see an unfamiliar hummingbird with a plain, unremarkable look in Arizona, it's worth a second glance.

Why We Built This Calendar

Pop's Birding has been helping hummingbird lovers for three generations. One of the questions our customers ask most often is "When do hummingbirds arrive and leave my state?" — we built this calendar to give a direct, sourced answer, not a generic one. For most states that's a straightforward question with a clean answer. Arizona genuinely isn't one of those states: with Anna's, Broad-billed, and Costa's all holding a real year-round presence, "when do they arrive" is the wrong question for most of the state most of the year. We wanted a calendar that tells that story honestly, including naming the specific month diversity actually peaks, rather than forcing Arizona into the same "arrival window" template that works for most other states.

How We Built This Calendar

We pulled eBird bar chart data for Arizona statewide and for five counties — Santa Cruz, Cochise, Pima, Maricopa, and Coconino — chosen to span the state's real climate range from low desert to high country, covering 2016 through 2025, and read the seasonal shape directly off the reporting rates ourselves.

Arizona's genuine diversity ruled out the single-species seasonal chart we use for most states. Instead, the timing chart above shows all nine species with a real, chartable presence, each normalized to its own peak so a thin-but-real species like Blue-throated Mountain-gem stays visible on the same chart as Anna's, which is more than ten times more common by raw percentage. Seven more species — Allen's, Berylline, Calliope, Lucifer, Plain-capped Starthroat, Ruby-throated, and White-eared — are genuinely documented but too thin to chart reliably at this scale; they're named in the chart's own caption rather than silently dropped.

Anna's, Broad-billed, and Costa's were confirmed as genuine year-round presences by reading the full raw weekly data, not just a threshold crossing — none of the three ever drops to zero in any month, statewide. That's a real finding specific to Arizona, not a data artifact, and it's the reason this calendar leads with a year-round baseline instead of an arrival date the way most other states' calendars do.

For region-by-region earliest-arrival and latest-departure detail — which genuinely varies by county, with a different species driving each end in some regions — that's a separate, original analysis on our how-to-attract guide.