Montana Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar

Timing derived from eBird checklist data, 2016–2025, sourced September 2026.

Montana has four breeding hummingbirds, and they are concentrated in the western and central parts of the state. The season runs from late April into early September, but it does not run as a single wave. Montana gets two.

The short answer: put feeders up by mid-April in the western valleys and by late April further south and east. Calliope Hummingbird peaks in mid-May. Then a second, separate surge of Rufous Hummingbird arrives in July and peaks in early August as they move back south. Nearly everything is gone by early September.

Quick Answers

Montana's Hummingbird Season at a Glance

Montana's four breeders do not share a schedule. Calliope arrives first and peaks in mid-May. Rufous builds slowly through June, then surges in July and peaks in early August. Black-chinned Hummingbird and Broad-tailed Hummingbird sit lower and peak in late July.

Two more species visit Montana without breeding here, and they belong to different halves of the state. Anna's is a western Montana bird that arrives in October and can stay into winter. Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a brief eastern Montana fall migrant, appearing for a few weeks in late August and early September.

The Regions on This Page

January, February & March: The Quiet Season

Montana has no hummingbirds at all for most of this stretch. East of the Continental Divide, feeders stay empty. West of it, a few Anna's from the previous autumn can still be present — statewide, they turn up on only about one checklist in a thousand in January, and effectively none by February.

By March the state is empty, and the first arrivals are still a month away.

This is the month to check last season's feeder before you need it.

Cracked seals, worn ports, and stained reservoirs all show up better in March than in a hurry in April. AspenPerch® has a built-in ant moat and a Polyperch® comfort perch, so there is one less thing to rig up when the first Calliope shows.

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April: The First Arrivals

The season opens in the northwest. Calliope turns up on about one in eighteen checklists around Missoula and about one in twenty-five around Kalispell by the last week of April, and Rufous is close behind in the Flathead at about one in thirty. Further south, almost nothing — Bozeman sees only about three checklists in a thousand and Red Lodge none at all.

What to do: Feeders up by mid-April in the Flathead and Missoula valleys, late April around Bozeman and Red Lodge. A feeder hanging a week early costs nothing; a feeder hanging a week late means the first birds move on.

May: Calliope Peaks

This is the first of Montana's two peaks, and it belongs to the smallest breeding bird in North America. Calliope turns up on more than one in four checklists around Missoula, about one in six in the Flathead, and about one in eight in both Bozeman and Red Lodge. Statewide it tops out at about one in ten in mid-May.

Rufous splits sharply this month. In the Flathead it reaches about one in six checklists, nearly matching Calliope. Around Bozeman it manages fewer than one in a hundred, and around Red Lodge about one in seventy. Black-chinned begins arriving in the western valleys.

June: Nesting

Numbers dip statewide as females settle onto nests — Calliope eases from about one in ten statewide checklists to about one in twelve. This is normal and not a sign anything has gone wrong. Missoula stays busy at nearly one in four, and Red Lodge's Broad-tailed holds at about one in twelve.

Why nesting season is the demanding one

There's a wrinkle specific to hummingbirds. Most female birds build up a temporary calcium store in their bones, called medullary bone, and draw on it to make eggshell. Hummingbirds have very little of it, so a laying female has less in reserve. Researchers have seen nesting females eating wood ash and other mineral-rich materials, which they think helps replace the calcium that goes into eggs. In one 1994 study, every bird seen eating ash was a female tending a nest.

It's part of why Pop's Nectar includes calcium and electrolytes rather than sugar alone. Nesting females need extra calcium during egg-laying, and plain sugar water has essentially none. Read more on the research behind it.

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July: The Southbound Rufous Wave

This is the month that makes Montana different. Rufous more than doubles statewide, from about one in twenty-five checklists in June to about one in ten in July — and in southern Montana it appears almost from nothing. Bozeman goes from fewer than one in a hundred in June to about one in fifteen in July. Red Lodge goes from about one in a hundred to about one in eleven.

These are not local birds returning. They are Rufous moving back south through the Rockies after breeding further north and west. Black-chinned and Broad-tailed also reach their statewide peaks in late July.

Expect competition.

A single Rufous will guard a feeder against every other bird in the yard, and July is when that starts. A second feeder out of sight of the first does more than a bigger feeder does. Pairing a feeder with a hummingbird swing nearby gives the birds a perch to hold the territory from, which takes some pressure off the feeder itself.

Shop a second swing →

August: The Second Peak

Rufous tops out at about one in ten statewide checklists in early August — Montana's second peak, and in southern counties the biggest hummingbird month of the year. Bozeman and Red Lodge both reach about one in ten, their annual highs. Calliope is already declining.

In eastern Montana, this is also when Ruby-throated appears — a brief fall passage that runs into the first week of September.

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.

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September: When Hummingbirds Leave Montana

The exit is fast. Statewide, Calliope falls from about one in seventeen checklists in August to about one in sixty in September, and Rufous from about one in ten to about one in sixty. Most of Montana is empty by the first week of the month.

Bozeman holds on longest — Calliope still turns up on about one in seventeen checklists there in September, which is why its departure reads mid-September rather than early. The Flathead clears first.

What to do: Leave feeders up two weeks after your last sighting. The birds still moving through in September are the ones that need it most, and a feeder has never kept a hummingbird from migrating — day length does that, not sugar water.

October: Anna's Season Begins

With the breeders gone, the one species still arriving is Anna's, which peaks statewide in mid-October at just under one checklist in two hundred. This is a western Montana event. Montana's bird records committee no longer requires a report for Anna's west of 111°W, which is roughly the Helena–Bozeman line, while it remains genuinely rare east of there.

September into early October is Montana's planting window, ahead of the first hard freeze.

Native wildflower seed needs a cold, moist winter before it will germinate, so sowing the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend now is what makes it bloom in time for next spring's arrivals.

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November & December: Winter Watch in the West

East of the Divide, the season is over — bring feeders in, scrub them, and store them dry. West of it, Anna's remains present, on roughly one statewide checklist in 250, through both months, and individual birds have overwintered in the Flathead region for months at a time.

What to do: If you have an Anna's in western Montana, the job is keeping nectar from freezing rather than taking the feeder down. Photograph it and report it — overwintering records are exactly the kind of observation that changes what we know about this species' range.

The Year at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

When do hummingbirds arrive in Montana?

Late April in the Flathead and Missoula valleys, and early May around Bozeman and Red Lodge. Calliope is almost always the first species to show.

When do hummingbirds leave Montana?

Early September across most of the state. Bozeman runs about a week later, into mid-September, and Red Lodge clears earliest, by late August.

When should I put my hummingbird feeder up in Montana?

Mid-April in the western valleys and late April around Bozeman and Red Lodge. The first Calliope reach Missoula in the last week of April, so a feeder hanging by mid-April is ready for them.

Why do I only see Rufous Hummingbirds in late summer?

If you live in southern Montana, that is the normal pattern. Rufous move north in spring through the western valleys and return south through the Rockies in July and August. Around Bozeman they go from fewer than one in a hundred checklists in June to about one in ten in August.

Which month is best for seeing hummingbirds in Montana?

It depends where you are. Western Montana peaks in mid-May with Calliope, while southern Montana peaks in early August when Rufous move back through. Missoula is the busiest county in the state, with Calliope on about a quarter of May checklists.

When should I take my hummingbird feeder down in Montana?

Two weeks after your last sighting, which for most of the state means late September. West of the Continental Divide, leaving one up through winter is worth it, because Anna's Hummingbird arrives in October and individual birds have stayed for months.

Why We Built This Calendar

Pop's Birding has been helping hummingbird lovers for three generations, and "when do hummingbirds arrive and leave my state?" is one of the questions we hear most. A single statewide date is exactly wrong for somewhere the size of Montana: Calliope shows up on about a quarter of May checklists around Missoula and barely reaches one in fifty all year around Billings, and Rufous is a spring bird in the Flathead Valley but a midsummer bird around Bozeman, three months apart. So we built a calendar that tells you the truth for where you actually live.

How We Built This Calendar

Every date here comes from week-by-week eBird checklist data for 2016–2025, statewide and for four counties: Flathead (Kalispell), Missoula, Gallatin (Bozeman) and Carbon (Red Lodge). Species status was cross-checked against the Montana Bird Records Committee and the Montana Natural Heritage Program's Field Guide. We date arrival from the week a county reaches a quarter of its own peak and check how many checklists sit behind it; Carbon's early-May arrival rests on only about five, the thinnest number on this page. The two-wave Rufous pattern is our own analysis, not a restatement of eBird's bar charts.

Sources

• eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Montana statewide and by county, 2016–2025.
• Montana Bird Records Committee, Montana Bird Advocacy — state list and review list, used for every species-status call on this page.
• Montana Field Guide, Montana Natural Heritage Program — breeding-status detail and in-state nest records.
• des Lauriers, J. R. (1994). Hummingbirds eating ashes. The Auk, 111(3), 755–756. Documents five nesting female hummingbirds eating wood ash; no males were seen doing so in that study.
• Adam, M. D., & des Lauriers, J. R. (1998). Observations of hummingbirds ingesting mineral-rich compounds. Journal of Field Ornithology, 69, 257–261. Source for hummingbirds' greatly reduced medullary bone and for the mineral-rich materials they eat.
• Werning, S. (2018). Medullary bone is phylogenetically widespread and its skeletal distribution varies by taxon. Journal of Ornithology, 159, 527–543. Source for medullary bone being confirmed in hummingbirds.