Despite the cold weather a ruby-throated hummingbird arrived in eastern Pennsylvania this week. He appeared April 2 on the hummingbirds migration map.
Observers in North America enter their first spring sightings of male ruby-throats at the hummingbirds.net website and their entries populate the map.
This screenshot taken at 5am April 5, 2018 shows the northernmost pioneers are in New Jersey and the Delaware watershed.
Hummingbirds move north when it’s warm but this spring’s weather has held them back. In 2012 it was so hot that they’d already reached Minnesota by now (click here to see).
Follow their migration on the hummingbirds.net map. Enter your own first sighting at this link.
Where are they now? Check the map to see.
(photo by Steve Gosser, screenshot of map from www.hummingbirds.net)
p.s. Thanks to Donna Foyle for sending this news.
Thanks to you and Donna for the alert. Time to get out the hummingbird feeders and start making sugar water.
Lanny Chambers is still plugging away at the map – a work of love for him for about 20 years or more. Especially amazing since he’s in his late 60s.
I am a bit concerned. I’ve put out a feeder in March. I have not seen a single bird. I live in Northern Kentucky. My daughter lives in Northern, TN. She has out 4 or 5 feeders and normally has swarms of birds. I’m here this weekend and haven’t seen a single hummingbird. All feeders are full. It’s June 2…..
Rachael Adams, I checked hummingbird reports for Kentucky, comparing the past 10 years March-to-May to this year March-to-May. The intensity of hummingbirds seems to have moved around this year. Here are two maps for you to compare:
The Past 10 Years of March-to-May hummingbird reports in the Kentucky region:
RTHU_map_mar-may-2008-2018_ebird
THIS YEAR’s March-to-May hummingbird reports in the Kentucky region, 2018:
RTHU_map_mar-may-2018_ebird
The reports of others might not match your own experience. Explore eBird here for more details.
I placed two humming bird feeders out in April. I have only received one black-chinned and just two days ago (June 1st, 2018) one Ruby. The previous years 2015, 2016 and 2017 I have 8 feeders out and 8-12 birds daily, all day. Where are they. I am concerned, does anyone know if they are imperiled this 2018??
I’ve seen mostly females here in NW NJ– where are all the males?
The males sometimes leave early. Meanwhile the immature males look like females so you probably have a mix of females and young.
I live about 12 miles north of Nashville, Tn. I saw a hummingbird at my feeder September 29, 2019, of course it is still 95 degrees here in daytime and not cooling at night. Have the hummingbirds been flying south already? Am I getting transitory birds at my feeder? When should they be gone from middle Tn? Should I keep the feeder up for migrating hummingbirds?
Betty Ann Sanders, keep your feeders up! In October you may be seeing the (rare east of the Rockies) rufous hummingbirds at your feeders. They’re from the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Alaska. Some migrate diagonally across the continent. Here’s more about them with a photo: https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2015/10/27/october-and-november-hummingbirds/