Although hummingbird research at Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History focuses primarily on local studies of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Archilochus colubris, occasional hummers of other species afford the opportunity for us to join with other banders around the country in monitoring vagrant hummingbirds in the eastern & central U.S.

For example, Rufous Hummingbirds, Selasphorus rufus (immature male at right)--which breed in the western U.S. and Canada--are being seen with increasing regularity during winter in the East, perhaps because more folks are leaving hummingbird feeders up after the traditional take-down date of Labor Day (or 1 September). The first adult male Rufous Hummingbird recorded in South Carolina during summer was banded by Hilton Pond Center staff in August 1994 in nearby Sharon SC, and we have banded numerous vagrant hummingbirds since then--even a female Rufous that visited the Center itself in December 2001 and a young male that showed up in September 2002.

As of October 2017, we know of 12 different hummer species reported from the Carolinas, even though the Ruby-throated Hummingbird is the only one that breeds in the eastern U.S. and southern Canada. The species on the following list have been accepted by each state's ornithological records committee; please let us know if there are any recent additions.

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Species in red below have been banded in North Carolina by Bill Hilton Jr. of Hilton Pond Center

• Mexican Violetear
• Green-breasted Mango
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Black-chinned Hummingbird
• Anna's Hummingbird
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird
• Rufous Hummingbird
• Allen's Hummingbird
• Calliope Hummingbird
• Broad-billed Hummingbird
• Buff-bellied Hummingbird

All text & photos © Hilton Pond Center

• Blue-throated Mountain-gem (provisional list)
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Black-chinned Hummingbird
• Anna's Hummingbird
• Rufous Hummingbird (including August bandings)
• Allen's Hummingbird
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird (only state record, banded by Bill Hilton Jr. at Hilton Pond Center; awaiting review)
• Calliope Hummingbird
• Broad-billed Hummingbird (two state records, one banded by Bill Hilton Jr.)
• Buff-bellied Hummingbird (only state record, banded by Bill Hilton Jr.; photo above)

Information about vagrant or winter hummingbirds--i.e., any hummingbird seen between 15 October and 15 March in the Eastern & central U.S. or southern Canada--will be forwarded to a bander who is close enough to view and possibly capture, band, and release the bird unharmed. (There is also a list of Other Hummingbird Banders on our sister Web site for Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project.)

NOTE: Vagrant western hummingbirds can show up in the eastern U.S. as early as August and--on rare occasions--even before then. In other words, keep your eyes peeled for hummers that are not obviously Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (RTHU), as described at RTHU External Appearance.

Vagrant hummingbirds banded by staff from Hilton Pond Center are listed in the table below. All linked photos are copyrighted and may not be used without express written permission.

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Leaving a sugar water feeder up in autumn will NOT keep Ruby-throated Hummingbirds from migrating. Hummer migration is stimulated by photoperiod, so as days become shorter in fall the birds begin to put on fat and soon depart for the tropics. In the eastern U.S., most ruby-throats that stay behind are those that are ill or "genetically inferior," and it's likely they will die in migration anyway.

At most locations in the eastern U.S. and southern Canada, 99.9% of the ruby-throats are gone by 15 October, and adult males don't begin to arrive north of the Gulf Coast states until mid-March or later; females follow soon thereafter. (There are winter records of apparently healthy Ruby-throated Hummingbirds from various locations in the U.S., especially south Florida and along the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts; these are exceptions but may be increasing in number, perhaps due to global warming. Wintering RTHU reports are even increasing for inland sites away from the coast.)

If you host (or want to attract) a winter hummingbird, we suggest you maintain one half-full feeder--changing the artificial nectar weekly--throughout the winter. You may need to bring the feeder in at night to keep it from freezing and put it out the next morning before dawn when you fill your seed feeders. In very cold weather, alternate two feeders by putting the warm one out at mid-day and bringing in the cold one. Some folks even use heat lamps, electric pipe wrap, and other creative contraptions to keep the sugar water warm and snow off the feeder (above left). There's no need to construct a "hummingbird house" because the bird isn't likely to use it. Your winter feeder should include a perch to allow the hummer to feed without expending much energy and to allow you a close view for observation and photography. Please submit the best of your winter hummingbird photos to PROJECTS.

Note there is not necessary to put anything in a winter feeder except sugar water, although you may wish to change your ratio from the usual 4:1 mix to 3:1 to slow down freezing. Even on cold winter days hummingbirds are able to replenish their fat and protein by catching tiny free-flying insects and even by gleaning small inveretbrates from twigs and bark. In some areas they also may hang around "sapsucker wells" (right) that attract insects and provide carbohyrdates via tree sap. (NOTE: In very cold climates, some enthusiasts have filled their feeders with NektarPlus, a balanced hummingbird diet that is expensive and difficult to find.)

Especially during the past 15 years there have been many Eastern U.S. sightings of vagrant western species such as Rufous Hummingbirds that do not breed in the East. If you see ANY hummingbird east of the Rockies from mid-October through mid-March, it may be one of these western birds; please contact RESEARCH as soon as possible via e-mail if you spot one. (Several hummingbird species normally overwinter in California, Arizona, and other western states; do not report these unless they are a species not normally found there.)

For a list of breeding and vagrant hummingbird species found in various parts of the U.S., visit our Web site for Operation RubyThroat: the Hummingbird Project, specifically at Hummingbird Checklists by State.

The Opertion RubyThroat site also has more Hummingbird Feeding Tips.

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The number of winter hummingbird sightings east of the Rocky Mountains appears to have increased considerably over the past decade, but it's hard to say whether there are actually more hummingbirds. Nonetheless, in recent winters even northern states such as New York and Michigan have had their share of winter hummers, and southern states are getting new hummingbird species that had never been recorded there.

Bill Hilton Jr., executive director of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History near York SC, is a hummingbird bander and researcher. He believes there are several factors involved in the apparent increase in winter vagrant hummingbirds:

• Hummingbird feeding has become far more popular over the last 15-20 years, and many more people are maintaining feeders.
• More feeders means more people who "forget" and leave their feeders up past Labor Day, the traditional (but unnecessary) date for taking down hummingbird feeders.
• In addition, more people are intentionally leaving a hummingbird feeder up past Labor Day, and maintaining it at least through November.
• All three of the above scenarios mean there are lots more eyes looking out--accidentally or on purpose--for winter hummingbirds, which are more noticeable than summer hummingbirds. Some of those eyes belong to K-12 students and teachers and citizen scientists in the U.S. and Canada who are involved with Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project.
• The Internet makes a difference. Not only has technology made people more aware of the winter hummingbird phenomenon, it is now easier for folks to hear the opinions of hummingbird experts (through chat groups such as Hummingbird Hobnob) and then to contact them via e-mail without long distance phone charges.
• Initiatives such as the Web sites for Hilton Pond Center and Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project have alerted people to the scientific value of reporting winter vagrant hummers.
• In southern states, feeders--and late-blooming ornamental plants such as Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans (right)--may have opened an artificial corridor for wandering western hummer species. This could also be true of the Great Plains, which historically may have been a relatively "food-less" barrier to western hummingbirds trying to fly east in late fall; that region is now dotted with farmsteads and towns that allow western hummers to hop-scotch eastward.
• Increasingly warm weather during the past several winters may have allowed vagrant hummingbirds to wander further than normal. (In other words, global climate change may be playing a role.)
• Habitat destruction in the traditional wintering grounds and/or along migratory paths may be influencing more hummers to wander. It may even be that some vagrant hummingbirds go to their traditional wintering grounds in the tropics, find the winter habitat destroyed, and wander away.
• Hummingbirds are inquisitive creatures; they constantly investigate their environment for new food sources, and it's not unreasonable to think a combination of factors may be enabling (or causing) them to explore distant locales into which they might extend wintering--and even nesting--ranges. After all, in the eastern U.S. and southern Canada there's only ONE breeding species--the Ruby-throated Hummingbird--while a dozen or more species nest in the West and Southwest.

Hilton believes some western hummers have always wandered eastward in autumn and early winter--we know that's been the case for Rufous Hummingbirds for at least the last hundred years--but there are really too many variables to answer the question of whether there are more winter vagrants than before. He suggests you report all winter vagrant hummers in the eastern U.S. to Hilton Pond Center at RESEARCH, and that you participate in Audubon's Great Backyard Bird Count in years to come so that comparisons can be made.

In any case, western hummers that arrive in eastern states are not "lost." These birds know exactly where they are--otherwise there'd be no reason why a banded female Rufous Hummingbird (photo at right and #43 on the table above) would show up at the same feeder in Rock Hill SC every winter for five years in a row.

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