The easiest way is to hang nectar feeders from hooks and tree branches around your home. Upon their return, there are two basic ways to attract Ruby-throated hummingbirds to your own backyard. You can follow the northern migration of hummingbirds to see when they get to your area here. Ruby-throated hummingbirds reach southern New Jersey in mid-April and we start to catch glimpses of them at feeders in central Jersey by the third week in April. After regaining some weight, most continue their journey north, sometimes covering up to 25 miles per day. Hummingbirds that survive and make it to the gulf coast hang out there for a few days to rest and refuel. Lack of blooming flowers, cold fronts, and spring storms can cause high mortality for both the males and females, especially for young birds making their first migration north. The emerald-backed, silver-bellied females (below, right) follow behind the males, but essentially follow the same routes.
Their continued migration north depends on getting enough high energy nectar from flowers and feeders when they land.
They reach the gulf coast in late February and early March, exhausted and starving. The first arrivals are the brilliant red-throated males (below, left). Incredulously, they fly nonstop across the 500-mile expanse of the Gulf of Mexico, having nowhere to rest until they reach the shores of Louisiana and Texas. They usually fly alone by day using the same flight path they have flown in the past. They need to store energy as fat to support the arduous journey to the U.S. To support this high rate of metabolism, the tiny birds voraciously gorge on insects and nectar to increase their body weight by as much as 40% before heading north. Hummingbird hearts beat about 1,200 times per minute and even faster when migrating. Every spring, the iridescent-throated hummers fly back to where their lives began. Ruby-throated hummingbirds are the only hummingbirds that breed in the eastern United States and each fall, they make a monumental 2,000-mile journey to their winter homes in Panama and Central America. Weighing less than a penny, this fighter pilot of a bird beats its wings 50 to 100 times per second and can dive up to 50 mph! Using a figure-eight wing pattern, hummingbirds can fly backwards, upside down, and even hover like helicopters for refueling. This resource was created by Joanne Vogel.įor those of us who impatiently observe every green shoot that emerges in the garden and listen intently for every new bird song at dawn, one of the most anticipated events of spring is the return of the ruby-throated hummingbird.
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