October Hummingbirds

The only hummingbird I've seen is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  If you live in the eastern half of the United States that may be the only one you've seen, too.  Here on October 1st I've still got two of these beautiful birds inhabiting my backyard.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird on my backyard feeder, October 1, 2012.

Obviously they're most attracted to my backyard hummingbird feeder.  They're also spending time visiting my Japanese Honeysuckle, Mexican Hummingbird bush, and some of the Cannas that are still blooming.  Notice red on the hummingbird feeder and on the flowers?  Hummingbirds are strongly attracted to the color red.  One of my bird identification guide books includes an anecdote stating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been killed when attempting to "feed" from red plastic insulators on electric fences.

Canna flowers, October 1, 2012.   They're much
prettier earlier in the year.

A few late flowers on my Mexican Hummingbird Bush,
October 1, 2012

Over the past 10 years or so there has been an increasing number of hummingbirds reported in the eastern United States during the fall or winter.  Primarily these reports are of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird and the Rufous Hummingbird, but more exotic species are showing up as well including the Calliope Hummingbird and the Black-chinned Hummingbird, among others.  Why is this happening?  Not being an expert myself I can only repeat what I've read elsewhere -- more and more people maintaining hummingbird feeders through the Fall and Winter months is probably the primary reason.  Climate change is also cited as a possible reason, but the winters of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 were some of the coldest in the past 130+ years over the southeastern United States, yet both years had relatively large numbers of vagrant hummingbirds spending the winter here.

My feeling is the increasing number of feeders being maintained year-round, and the increasing number of people using the Cornell University eBird website to share their sightings are responsible for the apparent increase in the numbers of winter hummingbirds in the eastern United States.  Many hummingbirds undoubtedly have failed to locate their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America for millennia, instead heading into the eastern U.S.  With few native plants flowering during the winter and few insects available to eat, these birds would have all starved -- until now.

The odds are certainly stacked against me, but my goal is to somehow attract one of these vagrant hummingbirds to my backyard this winter.  Or at least keep one of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds I've already got.  We'll see...

Output graph from Cornell University's eBird database as of October 1, 2012 for nine counties across
Southeastern North Carolina.  The plot shows the frequency of all eBird checklists that include at least
one Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.  The high number of birds seen during the winter is partially due
to observational bias (when someone sees a hummingbird in winter they are MUCH  more likely to
file a report) but it also indicates that the birds are here in fairly substantial numbers during the winter.

To see an updated version of the graphic above using live data from eBird, click this link.