Now is the time to get your hummingbird feeder ready for the season. The ruby-throated hummingbirds have begun their migration into the United States. The first reported sighting on hummingbirds.net was on February 25, 2010 in the Florida panhandle.

There are many details of the hummingbird migration that are not known.  Relatively few are banded each year and even fewer are recaptured to provide some information of that bird’s activity. Until the technology will allow very small, lightweight transmitters it is unlikely that enough data can be collected to fill in the unknowns.

What is known is that the ruby-throated hummingbirds that spend their winter in southern Mexico or western Panama have begun their northward migration.  To successfully migrate the birds must double their weight to fuel the long journey ahead. Some of the birds will be migrating up to 2500 miles including a 500 mile, 20 hour trip across the Gulf of Mexico. Some ruby-throated hummingbirds will choose the longer, but less difficult, trip along Eastern Mexico into Texas and then migrate up the United States from there.

The males begin the migration first with the females following approximately a week and a half behind. Their migration is spread over two or three months.

After they arrive in Eastern Texas or southern Florida they travel as far north as Nova Scotia, Labrador, New Brunswick or as far west as Minnesota into Manitoba , Saskatchewan and  Alberta.  They may move up to 20 miles per day, depending on the weather and availability of insects and plant nectar. There is evidence that an individual hummingbird will take the same migration route and return to the same place each year.

You can watch the migration and report the first sighting at your bird feeder here: http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html

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