re: The flight of the Hummingbird 2017 Update: Pg. 6 They are on the move!

I had my first one on 3/16, just a couple per day since and all males. The males come across the Gulf first and are headed north to claim the best territory early.

For anyone near the Gulf it's worth leaving a feeder out all winter. In Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Texas coast especially. The wintering populations are growing and more often than not they are different species than the Ruby-throated that make up 99.999% of the summer sightings in the east. This winter I just had one bird show up for a couple of days in December. Last winter I had a Ruby-throated juvenile male show up and a bander came out:



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If you have your feeders out in the spring it helps improve the odds that they will nest nearby and that will give you better numbers in the fall. The fall numbers jump simply because they are breeding. The population probably doubles to triples over the summer since they can have two broods. In the fall they mostly look like females but that's because immature males look like females. A few years ago I was lucky enough to have a nest outside my office window.