Vermont Hummingbird Season: A Month-by-Month Calendar

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

Vermont has one breeding hummingbird, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and a remarkably simple schedule. From Bennington to the Northeast Kingdom, the birds arrive the same week in early May, peak together in August, and are gone within the same couple of weeks in September.

The short answer: put feeders up by late April. Ruby-throated arrives statewide in the first week of May, peaks in late August, when about three checklists in ten statewide include one, and leaves Vermont by late September, about a week earlier in Orleans and Washington counties. A Rufous Hummingbird is a rare fall stray, and Vermont has no winter hummingbirds.

Quick Answers

Vermont Hummingbirds at a Glance

Vermont’s season is one clean curve: nothing until the last days of April, a jump by mid-May to nearly one checklist in five, a steady June at about one in six, then a climb through July and August to a late-August peak of about three in ten before a fast drop through September.

The Regions on This Page

January, February, March & April: Before the Birds Return

Vermont has no hummingbirds in the first months of the year. The first scattered reports appear in the last week of April, a week ahead of the real arrival.

Get your feeder up before the first bird arrives, not after.

Vermont’s Ruby-throateds arrive in the first week of May in every county we checked, so a feeder that goes up in late April costs you nothing — one that’s still in the garage when the first bird turns up costs you the sighting. This is also the month to check last year’s feeder for cracked seals and worn ports before the season depends on it. AspenPerch® has a built-in ant moat and a Polyperch® comfort perch, so birds rest between sips instead of hovering through the whole meal.

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May: Everyone Arrives at Once

Ruby-throated arrives across Vermont in the first week of May, and every county on this page crosses our arrival line that same week. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department puts the return at the beginning of May as well. By mid-May nearly one birdwatcher in five across the state is reporting one, and more than one in three in Orleans County.

Arrival is the first week a county’s hummingbird reports clear 1% of checklists, backed by at least five real checklists, and stay above that line. Orleans County’s first-week date rests on six checklists; its second week, with 118, confirms it. The other counties’ first weeks rest on 27 to 107.

What to do: Feeders up by late April. A feeder hanging a week early costs nothing; one that goes out after the first birds have come through misses them.

June & July: Nesting Season

June holds steady, with about one checklist in six statewide reporting a hummingbird. This is nesting season. Females build the nest and raise the young on their own: incubation takes about two weeks, and the young leave the nest about three weeks after hatching.

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 climbs as young birds join the adults, reaching nearly one checklist in four statewide by the last week.

August: The Peak

August is Vermont’s busiest month, topping out in the last week at about three checklists in ten statewide. Some counties run far higher than the Burlington area: Ruby-throated is on more than half of Orleans County checklists for three straight weeks, and on more than four in ten in Rutland County, while Chittenden County peaks at nearly one in four. This is the fueling season. Ruby-throateds feed hard before and during migration, and a study of birds stopping over on the Gulf Coast found that the leanest arrivals stayed longer to refuel (Zenzal & Moore, The Auk, 2016).

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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Shop Nectarade® Liquid 50.7 oz →

September: When Hummingbirds Leave Vermont

The exit is fast. Statewide, sightings fall from about one checklist in four in the first week of September to about one in sixteen by the third, and to about one in a hundred by the last. Orleans and Washington counties empty first, by mid-September, and the rest of Vermont follows by late September, matching the state wildlife department’s own "gone by the end of September."

Departure is the last week a county stays above the same 1% line. Bennington’s and Windham’s late-September weeks rest on 9 and 11 checklists, and Washington’s mid-September week on 10, so treat the one-week difference as small.

What to do: Leave feeders up until two weeks after your last sighting, usually early to mid-October. The late birds still moving through are the ones that need a full feeder most.

October, November & December: Rare Strays, Then Quiet

A few Ruby-throateds linger into early October, but they’re stragglers. October is also when Vermont’s one recurring rarity turns up. The Vermont Bird Records Committee lists Rufous Hummingbird as a vagrant and asks for documentation of every sighting, and the few eBird reports have come in late September and early October, mostly from Orleans County.

Vermont’s other rare hummingbird is the Mexican Violetear, with two accepted records, the second on Grand Isle on July 21, 2024 (VBRC annual reports). November and December are empty.

This is the planting month.

Vermont’s hummingbirds are gone by late September, which leaves October for planting. Sow now and native wildflowers get the cold, moist period most varieties need to bloom reliably next spring.

Shop the Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend →

What to do: Scrub your feeder and store it dry so it’s ready to go back up in late April. If a hummingbird does show up in October, photograph it — the records committee wants documentation of every Rufous.

The Year at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

When do hummingbirds arrive in Vermont?

In the first week of May, everywhere in the state at once. A few early birds appear in the last days of April, and by mid-May Ruby-throated is on nearly a fifth of all checklists.

When do hummingbirds leave Vermont?

By late September. Orleans and Washington counties empty about a week sooner, by mid-September, and only stragglers remain into early October.

When do hummingbirds come back to northern Vermont?

The same week as the rest of the state, the first week of May. Orleans County, in the Northeast Kingdom, crosses our arrival line that week just like Bennington and Windham counties in the south, and by mid-May it's one of the busiest counties in Vermont.

When should I put my hummingbird feeder up in Vermont?

By late April, about a week before the first-week-of-May arrival.

When should I take my hummingbird feeder down in Vermont?

About two weeks after your last sighting, which for most of Vermont means early to mid-October.

What is the best time to see hummingbirds in Vermont?

Mid-to-late August, when about three checklists in ten statewide include a Ruby-throated, and more than half in Orleans County.

Why We Built This Calendar

Pop’s Birding has been helping hummingbird lovers for three generations, and one of the questions we hear most is "when do hummingbirds arrive and leave my state?" Vermont is a state where a single statewide date is close to right, and we wanted to show that rather than assume it. So we checked six counties week by week and found the same arrival week everywhere, with only a one-week difference in departure. That is a useful answer in its own right: in Vermont, the date your neighbor across the state puts a feeder up is your date too.

How We Built This Calendar

Every date here comes from eBird checklist data for 2016–2025, read week by week for Vermont statewide and six counties: Orleans (Newport), Chittenden (Burlington), Washington (Montpelier), Rutland, Windham (Brattleboro) and Bennington. Species status comes from the Vermont Bird Records Committee, and we cross-checked the timing against the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. A county counts as arrived in the first week hummingbirds show up on at least 1% of its checklists and stay there. The finding: Vermont runs on one schedule. The county comparison is our own analysis; eBird’s bar charts show one statewide season.

Sources

• eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Vermont statewide and by county, 2016–2025.
• Vermont Bird Checklist, Vermont Bird Records Committee — species status, including Rufous as a vagrant.
• Vermont Bird Records Committee annual reports — Mexican Violetear records.
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department — arrival and departure.
• Zenzal, T. J., and F. R. Moore. 2016. Stopover biology of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds during autumn migration. The Auk 133:237–250 — fall refueling.
• 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.