How late should I leave my hummingbird feeders up in the fall?
There is a myth among some wildlife gardeners that leaving your hummingbird feeders up too late in the fall will entice the hummingbirds to hang around when they should be migrating. But this is simply not true.
Hummingbirds don’t decide to hang around just because there’s lots of food. Their internal biological clock compels them to leave for their wintering grounds at the right time, no matter how much you’d like them to stay in your wildlife garden.
Part of the answer to how long to leave your hummingbird feeder up in the fall depends on where you live. If you live on the west coast you may observe Anna’s Hummingbirds year-round, so obviously you should leave your hummingbird feeders up year-round as well as choosing lots of native plants to entice Anna’s Hummingbirds to stay in your garden.
If you live in the southwest, especially in Arizona near the Mexican border, there are several different hummingbirds you may get to see throughout the year.
But if you live east of the Mississippi River, there is only one hummingbird you would expect to see: the Ruby-throated Hummingbird, which migrates from Canada through the eastern states, often flies across the Gulf of Mexico, and winters in Mexico.
EXCEPT…..
Some rules are meant to be broken. Some Ruby-throated Hummingbirds may hang out much later than is usual in coastal areas in the southeast into the winter.
And then there are the rarities. Some western hummingbirds arrive on the east coast almost every winter to spend several days or weeks hanging out at hummingbird feeders left out by ever-hopeful birders. From points in New Hampshire to Cape May,NJ to various points south and along the Gulf Coast, western hummingbirds (rarities on the east coast) show up in November, December, and January.
And news of these rare winter visitors is cause for birders to begin to take spontaneous road-trips to see these beautiful birds.
So, my answer to how long to leave your hummingbird feeders up in the fall is this: take down and clean all of your hummingbird feeders after 2 weeks of not seeing any activity. BUT don’t put them all away. I remain ever hopeful that my winter hummingbird feeder will one day play host to a rare hummingbird visitor from the west. And so I leave it out for the winter.
You have to go to some effort to keep the feeder from freezing. One way to do this is to bring the feeder inside over night, but make sure to get it back outside early enough that your winter visitor will be able to immediately feed after a long winter night.
My absolute favorite hummingbird feeder is any of the Hummzinger feeders by Aspects. These feeders are very easy to keep clean and I can verify first hand that hummingbirds love them. Each of the photos I’ve used here shows a different Hummzinger feeder.
You may find that the Aspects Hummzinger Mini 8 oz is perfect for winter use because of its small size so that you’re not wasting hummingbird nectar.
Hummingbirds are fascinating and beautiful birds! Learn more about Hummingbirds from our team members:
- How Long Should I Leave My Hummingbird Feeders Up in the Fall?
- Is Sugar Bad for Hummingbirds?
- Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Part I: They’re Back!
- Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Part II: Summer Nectar
- Anna’s Hummingbirds: The Hummingbirds of Winter
- For Hummingbirds Sake
- The Hummingbird Games
- Whose Feeder Is It Anyway?
- Fueling Up
And don’t miss The Ultimate Guide to Birdscaping Your Garden
© 2014, Carole Sevilla Brown. All rights reserved. This article is the property of BeautifulWildlifeGarden.com We have received many requests to reprint our work. Our policy is that you are free to use a short excerpt which must give proper credit to the author, and must include a link back to the original post on our site. Please use the contact form above if you have any questions.
