Photo by Chris Bosak
A ruby-throated hummingbird visits a flower basket in New England, summer 2025.
Other than a few sightings while on walks at local parks, I hadn’t seen a single hummingbird all spring and most of the summer.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. I put out the same feeders and filled them with the same liquid I always do: four parts water, one part sugar. They never came. Not in April or May. Not in June or July.
August was headed toward a shutout as well until one day late in the month, it all changed. And it changed in a big way. Not only did a few hummingbirds show up, but they were around constantly. They visited the feeder one at a time, of course, because god forbid they’d actually share a feeder with four ports.
Photo by Chris Bosak
Hummingbirds are migrating now and will be throughout the rest of the month.
The hummingbird season got off to a slow start for me this year.
I didn’t see a single hummingbird at my feeder in April or May. I saw a few in the backyard in June, but they zipped by my feeding station like it wasn’t even there. That contrasts with last year when a few hummingbirds visited daily from spring through fall.
This year’s fortunes have changed, thankfully, as hummingbirds became a regular occurrence once August hit. I believe the visits are coming from a combination of a hummingbird family that nested nearby and some southward migrants.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds, the only hummingbird species that regularly occurs in the eastern U.S., start their southward migration out of New England in August (some as early as late July.) Just like adult males were the first to arrive in the spring, they are the first to leave on the southward journey.
Plenty of adult male hummingbirds remain in New England. My most frequent visitor over the last few weeks has been a male. They will mostly be gone by the end of the month. Females and first-year birds will mostly be gone by the middle or end of September. Hummingbird feeders can remain up into October as the stragglers heading out of New England will need to fuel up too.
Hummingbirds need plenty of fuel as these tiny birds make their way to Central America for the winter. The arduous nonstop flight across the Gulf of Mexico takes a lot out of the birds. Whether a bird’s route takes it directly across the gulf or a more coastal route, it’s still a long, perilous journey. Their typical weight is just over three grams. They bulk up to about six grams for the journey and are between two and three grams when they get to the other side of the gulf.
Birds of New England.com 