Ruby-throated Hummingbird: arrival dates, territorial males, and when to take the feeder down

The short answer

• Hang the feeder about two weeks before the first birds are expected locally: early March on the Gulf Coast, early April in the mid-Atlantic, early May around the Great Lakes and New England.
• Nectar is one part plain white sugar to four parts water, with no dye, no honey, no brown sugar and no sweetener. Nothing else is safe or necessary.
• One adult male will hold a single feeder against every other hummingbird in the yard. Two or more feeders that cannot see each other is the fix, not a bigger feeder.
• Leaving a feeder up does not delay migration. Departure is driven by day length and an internal cycle, and a late feeder helps stragglers rather than trapping them.
• Change nectar on a temperature schedule, from every four to five days in cool weather to daily above 90 °F. Cloudy nectar or black specks means it should already have been changed.

Every other bird on this site is a question of what to put out. A Ruby-throated Hummingbird is a question of when, and then of how many feeders, because a single feeder in a yard with one territorial male is functionally a feeder for one bird.

Arrival, by latitude#

These are the windows to work from. Hang the feeder about two weeks before your window opens, because the first birds through are migrants that will not wait for you.

Run the arithmetic on those dates and the front is moving roughly 125 miles a week, which is about the pace of the spring leaf-out it follows. Adult males come first, females one to two weeks later, which is why the first hummingbird of the year is almost always a male with a dark throat that flashes red only when the light catches it.

Local variation is large, so treat the table as a starting point and check current sightings for your state. There is a fuller schedule, including the autumn end, in hummingbird feeder timing.

Territory: why you think you have one hummingbird#

You probably have six. Ruby-throats defend feeding territories, and a dominant adult male will pick a bare exposed twig 10 to 30 ft from the feeder, sit on it for most of the day, and intercept every other hummingbird that comes within about 40 ft. The chases are noisy and they are constant. Everyone else feeds in the two-second gaps or goes elsewhere.

The fix is a sight line problem, not a capacity problem:

1. Put out at least two more feeders, small ones. Three 8 oz feeders beat one 32 oz feeder in every way that matters here.
2. Site them so no two are visible from the same perch. Around a corner of the house, on opposite sides of a fence, with a shrub or a wall between them. Twenty feet apart with a clear view between them changes nothing; twenty feet apart with a solid barrier changes everything.
3. Remove the guard perch if it is a single obvious dead twig, or accept it and place the extra feeders behind the bird's back.
4. Expect the effect within a few days. Birds already in the neighborhood find the new feeders fast because they have been circling the defended one.

Nectar, and the things that ruin it#

Four parts water, one part plain white sugar. Stir to dissolve, cool completely, fill. That is the entire recipe, and the batch sizes are worked out for you in the nectar calculator.

What not to do, and why:

• Red dye. No nutritional purpose and no benefit. Feeders already have red parts, and if yours does not, tie a red ribbon on the hook.
• Honey. Ferments quickly and supports fungal growth. Never in a feeder.
• Brown sugar, raw sugar, molasses. Contain iron and other compounds that plain white sugar does not.
• Artificial sweetener. Zero calories, which is the one thing a hummingbird is at the feeder for.
• A stronger mix. Sweeter is not better. Stay at 4:1.

Change on temperature, not on level: below 70 °F every five to six days, 70 to 79 °F every three days, 80 to 89 °F every two days, 90 °F and above or in full sun daily. Shade extends every one of those intervals, so hang the feeder where it gets morning light and afternoon shade. The nectar recipe page has the cleaning routine in full, and if ants or wasps are getting to it before the birds do, see ants on hummingbird feeders and bees and wasps.

Who else drinks from the feeder#

• Top-tier favorite for: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Anna's Hummingbird, Baltimore Oriole
• Taken occasionally by: Red-bellied Woodpecker

Nectar is a narrow food. Two hummingbirds treat it as a staple, orioles take it readily, and a short list of woodpeckers, finches and chickadees will sip at a port opportunistically. If your nectar is disappearing overnight with no birds in sight, the usual culprits are a Baltimore Oriole at dawn, or bees, wasps and ants rather than birds at all.

Telling one hummingbird from another in the East#

• Adult male Ruby-throated. Emerald green above, gorget that looks black in most light and flares scarlet when the light is head-on. Notched, forked tail.
• Female and immature Ruby-throated. Green above, plain whitish throat, rounded tail with white tips. Young males may show a few dark throat flecks by late summer. Most of what you see in August and September falls in this category.
• Rufous Hummingbird. Rusty orange on the flanks and tail. Increasingly recorded in the East in late autumn and early winter, which is a real reason not to take feeders down the moment the ruby-throats go.
• Black-chinned Hummingbird. Overlaps in central Texas and the western edge of the range. Females are close to impossible to separate in the field.
• Hummingbird moth. A day-flying sphinx moth that hovers at flowers at dusk with an audible hum. Antennae, six legs, no bill. It fools nearly everyone once.

Feeder up, nothing arriving#

Too late in the season. Birds settle territories within days of arriving. A feeder hung in June competes with everything already established.

Nectar is off. Cloudy liquid, strings of black mold in the ports, or a sour smell. Empty, scrub with a bottle brush, rinse thoroughly and refill.

Full sun all afternoon. Nectar can turn in a day. Move it to shade.

One male is excluding everyone. The single commonest cause of the "I only get one hummingbird" complaint. Split the feeders.

Nothing else in the yard. Feeders work best as a supplement to flowers. Tubular red and orange blooms plus small insects, which is most of a hummingbird's protein, both come from a yard that is not sprayed. Native plants and cover does more over a season than a second feeder.

Late June quiet spell. Females are on nests and males are less active. It usually resumes in July with a rush of juveniles.

You are west of the Rockies. Then this is the wrong species. See Anna's Hummingbird and the western nectar picture.

Autumn, and the myth that will not die#

Departure is not a single date. Adult males start moving south from mid-July, females follow through August, and juveniles leave last, into September and October. The birds at your feeder in late September are usually young birds on their first migration, which is exactly when the food is worth the most.

Leaving a feeder up does not hold a bird back. Migration in this species is driven by day length and an internal annual rhythm; a full feeder does not override it, and healthy birds leave on schedule whether or not you keep feeding. The practical rule is to keep one feeder going for two weeks after your last sighting, then clean it and store it. In the Southeast, keeping a single feeder through the winter is worth doing, because western vagrants turn up along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts in November and December, and for those birds it is not a hobby detail.

For the full seasonal picture across both coasts, including when to restart in spring, see hummingbird feeders and the bird feeding calendar.

Frequently asked questions#

When should I put my hummingbird feeder out?

Two weeks before the first birds usually arrive where you live. On the Gulf Coast and in Florida that means late February. In the Carolinas and Tennessee, mid to late March. In the mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley and Missouri, early April. Around the Great Lakes, New York and New England, mid to late April. In southern Canada and the Upper Midwest, early May. Adult males arrive first, females one to two weeks behind them, and an early feeder catches migrants passing through even if none stay to breed.

What is the correct hummingbird nectar recipe?

One part plain white granulated sugar to four parts water by volume, for example a quarter cup of sugar in one cup of water. Stir until fully dissolved; heating helps it dissolve and slows spoilage slightly, but boiling is not required. Cool completely before filling. Never add red dye, honey, brown sugar, raw sugar, molasses or artificial sweetener. Extra sugar is not a favor: a stronger mix is harder to process and gives no benefit worth the risk.

Why does only one hummingbird use my feeder?

Because a male has claimed it. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds defend feeding territories aggressively, and a single adult male will perch on a bare twig 10 to 30 ft away and chase off every bird that approaches, all day. Adding ports does nothing, because the problem is a sight line rather than capacity. Hang a second and third feeder where the guard bird cannot see them from his perch, around a corner of the house or on the far side of a hedge, and your visible count usually multiplies within days.

Does leaving a hummingbird feeder up stop birds migrating?

No. This is the most persistent myth in hummingbird feeding. Migration is triggered by changing day length and an internal annual cycle, not by whether food happens to be available. A healthy bird leaves on schedule with a feeder hanging full beside it. Keeping nectar out for two weeks after your last sighting supports late juveniles, injured birds and western strays moving through, all of which need the calories more than your regulars did.

How often should hummingbird nectar be changed?

By temperature, not by how full the feeder looks. Below 70 °F, every five to six days; 70 to 79 °F, every three days; 80 to 89 °F, every two days; 90 °F and above or in direct sun, daily. Rinse and brush the feeder at every change and give it a full clean weekly. Cloudy liquid, floating specks or a slippery film inside means the nectar has already been out too long and the feeder needs scrubbing, not topping up.

Sources and further reading

1. Ruby-throated Hummingbird Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds Range, migration timing, breeding behavior and identification
2. Hummingbirds Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch Nectar ratio, feeder hygiene and change intervals
3. Hummingbird Migration Journey North, University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum Season-by-season first-sighting maps used to check local arrival dates