Follow-up to my post of Overwhelmed by Hummingbirds (1 Viewer)

I did a post called "Overwhelmed by Hummingbirds in my backyard" in Dec. & want to follow up on that based on my observation of hummingbird behavior in my backyard at Sonoma County, specifically Sky Hawk of Santa Rosa, 50 miles North of San Francisco.

Most of the hummingbirds here are Anna's. I don't think they migrate because the Winter here is not too severe. We may get a week or two of freezing temperature. This year we had a week of temp around 25 deg.

What I observed this year was that the hummingbirds was very active around my feeders from Dec to about 3rd week of Feb. where I had to constantly refill the feeders every other day, 16oz feeder everyday.

But by March, the activity drastically dropped off; it seemed they only occasionally visit the feeders during the day & only towards the end of the day do I see multiple hummingbirds at the feeders. In March, I now only fill the feeders less than a 1/4 way, so that the solution don't sit in the feeders too long & still it's not empty when I replace the solution after 3-4 days.

This is interesting, from a near frantic pace to a drastic drop off. I wonder where they've gone for their food source now? Are they eating more insects now? Its only the beginning of Spring & the flowers hasn't bloomed yet, so where are they getting their nectar? There are still many secrets we don't know about these remarkable birds.

livewithnature said:

This is interesting, from a near frantic pace to a drastic drop off. I wonder where they've gone for their food source now?

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I think the operative word here is "gone" - as in, away to their breeding areas. In winter, they can cluster in areas with a steady food supply (such as around your house), but for nesting, they need more room. So, they disperse (I don't know where, for Anna's) to individual territories for the summer.

Peter C.

Yes that was my thoughts too, that they are now off to mate & raise their offsprings. I think this same thing happened last year, but I didn't noticed because I had my feeders placed differently. I think once they raised their chicks, then they will appear again more frequently.

I'll sometimes get a big blast of Anna's in April. I don't think we should put radio collars on them - but I've monitored their movements for 30 years. 21 at my current place. They move around. It would be fun to know where, when, and why.