Missouri runs on one dependable breeder with a genuinely different rhythm than you'd expect: Ruby-throated Hummingbird arrives across the whole state in almost the same week, then leaves at different times depending on where you live — and one county keeps a real, documented winter visitor going well past when everyone else has gone quiet. Nine more species turn up as genuine rarities. Here's how the year actually unfolds, region by region.

The short answer: Ruby-throated arrives statewide by the third week of April — not staggered region to region the way it is in some states, just about everywhere at once — and is gone from most of the state by mid-to-late October. The one real exception is Boone County, home to Columbia, where Rufous Hummingbird is a real, documented winter visitor and a handful of late Ruby-throateds have been tracked into December. Between the statewide wave and Boone's own longer season, Missouri has more hummingbird activity in its calendar than a single "gone by fall" answer would suggest.

Missouri's Hummingbird Season at a Glance

Before the region-by-region detail below, here's the whole season in one picture.

How often Ruby-throated Hummingbird — Missouri's only confirmed breeder — shows up on eBird checklists, week by week, statewide, 2016–2025. Nine more species have been documented in Missouri, but only one, Rufous Hummingbird, has a real seasonal pattern worth charting — see its own chart just below. The rest are true rarities: three (Black-chinned, Anna's, Broad-billed) have a trace of real eBird presence but too few sightings to show a reliable shape, and five (Calliope, Broad-tailed, Allen's, Mexican Violetear, Rivoli's) are genuine committee-only records with no real eBird trail behind them at all. Full details on each are in the Sources section below.

Rufous is real, but its numbers are so much smaller than Ruby-throated's that putting them on the same chart would basically erase them — not because anything's hiding them, they're just a different scale entirely. Here it is on its own, where its actual shape finally shows.

Rufous Hummingbird alone, scaled to its own real range — the only Missouri species outside Ruby-throated with a genuine, recurring multi-week pattern. Source: same eBird pull as above.

Arrival and departure windows by region, based on eBird checklist data (Cornell Lab of Ornithology), 2016–2025.

January & February: Rufous's Winter Tail End

Ruby-throated is entirely absent — this is the one stretch of the year with zero real signal from Missouri's breeding species. But the calendar isn't actually blank: Rufous Hummingbird, having built up through November and December, still turns up in small numbers here and there, mostly a handful of birds finishing out a stay that started back in the fall. If you're seeing a hummingbird at a Missouri feeder in January, it's virtually certain to be this species, not a very-early Ruby-throated.

What to do: If you're hosting one of these birds, keep the feeder up and don't take it as a sign spring has arrived early — Ruby-throated is still roughly twelve weeks out.

March: The True Quiet Month

The one genuinely empty stretch of Missouri's year. Ruby-throated hasn't arrived anywhere in the state yet, and Rufous's winter presence has thinned to its lowest point before the following fall's arrivals begin. A feeder left up through March mostly just needs a fresh, unspoiled nectar change — nothing to actively watch for yet.

April: The Whole State Arrives Together

Ruby-throated's real spring arrival, and unlike a lot of states, it doesn't stagger from one end of Missouri to the other. Kansas City, Columbia, St. Louis, and Springfield all show their real, sustained climb starting the same week — the third week of April, statewide.

Arrival here means the first week each region's Ruby-throated reports climb clearly and steadily above the winter baseline — not just a one-week blip. We checked the actual number of checklists behind each of these, not just the percentage, and confirmed the pattern held for several weeks running before calling it real. Every region we tracked crossed that line the same week.

Since the whole state's wave lands together, there's no advantage to waiting to see if your neighbors' feeders are busy yet. Have yours out by early-to-mid April so it's ready the same week everyone else's is. If more than one bird ends up claiming your yard once the wave is in full swing, a second feeder gives them room to spread out instead of contesting one station. Shop AspenPerch® →

May: The Wave Settles In

By early May, arrival is complete statewide and Ruby-throated numbers are building toward the summer plateau. This is also when territorial behavior around feeders starts becoming visible, as birds settle into breeding territories rather than just passing through.

June: Nesting Season

Missouri's breeding population settles in for real. Females are on nests through this stretch, and feeder activity can look quieter simply because incubating and brooding females visit less often — not a sign birds have left. This is also where the statewide chart shows its one real dip: numbers actually ease off slightly through late May and June before climbing again into summer, the same nesting-season pattern showing up in the data.

It's part of why Pop's Nectar includes calcium and electrolytes rather than sugar alone. Nesting females need a real source of calcium during egg-laying, and there isn't one in nectar alone. Shop Pop's Nectar → Read more on the research behind it.

July: Deep Summer Heat

Nesting continues into July for later broods, but the month's real signature is the heat — and with it, ants and bees competing for the same nectar hummingbirds need.

Keep pests off without pesticides — hummingbirds rely on small insects for protein, so spraying near a feeder can cost them a food source, not just protect one. AspenPerch®'s built-in ant moat blocks ants with a water barrier, and Hummguard™ Nectar Tips keep bees and wasps out without changing anything for the birds. Shop AspenPerch® →  |  Shop Hummguard™ →

August: Fueling Up, and a Few Early Wanderers

Ruby-throated is deep into hyperphagia now, the pre-migration feeding surge that builds the fat reserves needed for the trip south — this is Missouri's real fueling window, right before the September peak. Late in the month, something else shows up too: a handful of Rufous Hummingbirds, real but small in number, likely wandering individuals rather than the start of the main winter pattern. They fade out again by mid-September, well before Rufous's genuine season begins in November.

This is the month to be generous, not economical. Birds fueling for a long flight need feeders topped up more often — the large 2lb Nectarlyte® powder or the Nectarade® liquid concentrate keeps you from running out mid-surge. Shop Nectarlyte® 2lb →  |  Shop Nectarade® Concentrate →

September: Peak Season, Then the Turn

Missouri's single busiest week of the year for hummingbirds: the first week of September, when Ruby-throated hits its statewide peak of 45% of checklists — the highest of any month by a wide margin. That peak doesn't hold long; by the second half of the month, numbers are already falling fast statewide as the southbound migration gets underway in earnest.

October: Most of the State Empties Out

Ruby-throated's real departure month, though not all at once everywhere. Greene County (Springfield) is typically the first to go quiet, by mid-October; Jackson (Kansas City) follows a week or so later; St. Louis and Boone hold on into late October before their own numbers drop off in earnest.

October is a departure month, but it's also a planting one — the timing works out well for both.

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What to do: Take your feeder down about two weeks after your last Ruby-throated sighting, not by a fixed date — that accounts for your own yard and this year's weather better than any calendar date can. If you're in Boone County, keep at least one feeder up regardless: Columbia is Missouri's one region that doesn't follow the rest of the state's October exit.

November: Boone County's Real Handoff

This is where Missouri's calendar splits by region. Most of the state is quiet by now — Jackson, St. Louis, and Greene have all emptied out. Boone County is the real exception: a genuine, documented pattern of late Ruby-throateds (not just stragglers passing through) keeps the county's feeders busier than the rest of the state well into the month. At the same time, Rufous Hummingbird's real season gets underway statewide, climbing through November toward its own peak mid-month.

Seeing one bird chase everyone else off? That's usually a resident claiming both the feeder and a nearby swing as its own guarded territory. A second feeder and a second swing, spaced out of sight of each other, gives another bird — the incoming migrant or a displaced resident — its own station to guard instead of fighting over one. Shop a second feeder →  |  Shop swings →

December: Two Different Stories, One Month

December in Missouri is really two calendars running at once. In Boone County, a small number of genuine, documented Ruby-throateds are still being seen — the same real pattern that's kept Columbia's feeders active since November, not a one-off. Statewide, Rufous Hummingbird is in the strongest stretch of its own season, having built through November and staying present at real, meaningful levels right through December. If you spot a hummingbird at a Missouri feeder this month and you're not in Boone County, it's almost certainly this species.

What to do: Keep nectar fresh through cold snaps — an ice-crusted feeder reads as empty to a bird that's actually counting on it. This is true anywhere in the state at low odds, and a genuinely good idea in Boone County or anywhere Rufous has shown up before.

The Year at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

When do hummingbirds arrive in Missouri?

The third week of April, and unlike a lot of states, arrival doesn't stagger from one end of Missouri to the other — Kansas City, Columbia, St. Louis, and Springfield all show their real, sustained arrival the same week.

When do hummingbirds leave Missouri?

Most of the state is quiet again by mid-to-late October, though not all counties empty out at once — Springfield tends to go first, by mid-October, with Kansas City, St. Louis, and Columbia following through late October. The one real exception is Boone County, where documented Ruby-throateds continue being seen into December.

Are there hummingbirds in Missouri in the winter?

Yes — Rufous Hummingbird, a real annual winter visitor rather than an occasional stray, builds through November and stays present at meaningful levels through December, strongest in the eastern and southwestern parts of the state.

Why does Boone County still have hummingbirds when the rest of Missouri doesn't?

It's a real, documented pattern, not a fluke — Columbia has multiple accepted records of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds staying into December, including a banded bird tracked there in past years. Nothing else about Boone County's feeders needs to change; the birds that linger are simply part of a known, recurring local pattern.

Should I keep a feeder up through a Missouri winter?

It's worth it almost anywhere in the state at low odds, and a genuinely good idea in Boone County or anywhere Rufous has shown up before. Keep nectar fresh through cold snaps rather than assuming an empty-looking feeder in January means nothing's coming.

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. Most timing advice online gives a single date for an entire state, which misses real regional differences almost everywhere, including Missouri: while most of the state's arrival is genuinely synchronized, its departure isn't, and one county — Boone, home to Columbia — keeps a documented winter visitor going long after the rest of the state has gone quiet. We wanted a calendar that tells you the truth for where you actually live, not an average that hides Missouri's most interesting finding.

How We Built This Calendar

We pulled eBird bar chart data (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) for Missouri statewide and for four counties — Jackson, Boone, St. Louis, and Greene — covering 2016 through 2025, chosen to represent Missouri's genuinely different geography rather than just its most populous places. "Arrives" is the first week a region's reports clearly and durably rise above the winter baseline; we check the raw checklist counts behind that crossing, not just the percentage, since a thinly-birded county can cross a percentage threshold on much weaker underlying signal than a heavily-birded one. Before any species went on a chart, we screened its full weekly series — not just its peak — for eBird's own 0.15% rounding-floor artifact, which can otherwise show up as a small, real-looking bump with no real signal behind it; three such weeks were found and removed from Rufous Hummingbird's statewide series before charting.

We cross-check every rare species against the Missouri Bird Records Committee's own status codes rather than eBird frequency alone — Missouri's own definitions (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Casual, Accidental) map directly onto how confidently a species belongs on this page. The genuine finding from this build: Missouri's arrival is far more uniform statewide than departure is. Every tracked region's Ruby-throated population shows its real, sustained climb the same week in April — but by fall, Boone County breaks from the rest of the state entirely, with a real, independently documented pattern of December stragglers that the other three counties simply don't share. That's not available from a single statewide percentage; it only shows up once each region's weekly shape is compared directly, which is what the regional map above is built to do honestly rather than misleadingly.

Sources

• eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Missouri statewide and county-level (Jackson, Boone, St. Louis, Greene), 2016–2025. Source for all seasonal timing and the regional arrival/departure pattern.
• Missouri Bird Records Committee (MBRC), via the Missouri Birding Society's Annotated Checklist of Missouri Birds. Source for Missouri's full 10-species list and status codes for every rare visitor, including Rufous Hummingbird's "Rare" classification (Missouri's own definition: more than 15 records, usually observed annually).
• Robbins, The Status and Distribution of Birds in Missouri (2nd ed., 2020). Source for individually dated accepted records behind Missouri's rarer species, and for documented Ruby-throated winter stragglers including a banded bird tracked in Columbia, Boone County.