Ask the Experts: Hummingbird Behavior Explained: Birding experts answer common questions about backyard hummingbird behavior. Your backyard nectar feeder or flower garden is magical when hummingbirds visit.
Ask the Experts: Hummingbird Behavior Explained
They appear to hover and fly in an instant. Readers often ask about these tiny fliers, which can be difficult to attract. This answers some of the most common hummingbird behavior questions.
How do I attract more hummingbirds to my yard?
Think red! Colorful feeders and tube-shaped flowers can attract these birds. Growing nectar flowers and keeping feeders clean and filled with sugar water is especially beneficial.
Why do hummingbirds chase others away from the feeder?
These birds instinctively defend their food sources because a patch of flowers produces little nectar daily. Hummingbirds are defensive at feeders too.
Multiple feeders spaced apart can prevent one from dominating the food source. It’s harder for one bird to control all feeders if one is hidden (around a corner). Even the most aggressive hummingbird may give up and share.
How do I know if a female hummingbird is nesting nearby?
A female hummingbird never leaves my yard. Could she be nesting nearby? If your yard has flowers or feeders, a hummingbird may stay close even without a nest. Her behaviour will indicate whether she is nesting or raising young.
If she’s incubating eggs, she’ll stay on the nest and only eat occasionally. When building a nest or feeding young nestlings, she travels frequently. She may be enjoying your yard rather than nesting if she perches in the open most of the time.
Hummingbird courtship behavior to attract mates
A male ruby-throated hummingbird zooms around my yard, chirping loudly. What’s he doing? Reader Kelly Kothenbeutel asks.
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Male ruby-throats perform impressive shuttle displays during hummingbird courtship. A male quickly flies in a shallow arc with his throat feathers flared, making a loud whirring sound.
This display is usually directed at a female hummingbird, but she may be hard to spot if she’s hiding in a tree or shrub and watching.
Male and female hummingbird behavior
I see many female hummingbirds at our feeders but no males. Why? asks reader James Hoover. Several factors may contribute. Some studies have found slightly more females than males in adult ruby-throated hummingbirds.
Males behave differently too. They perch higher to watch for rivals and visit feeders briefly, while females spend more time at feeders to raise young alone. Young, independent hummers, which look like adult females, outnumber adult males in late summer. However, your feeders may be having an odd coincidence.
When do hummingbirds migrate?
It varies by location. The South and Pacific Coast may have hummingbirds all winter. Northern hummingbirds may disappear by October. Later in fall, a Western hummingbird may visit the East. Keeping your feeders up until November may draw unexpected visitors.
Don’t worry about feeders preventing local migration. Their migration instinct is strong. Neither flowers nor feeders can keep them from leaving.
