Ruby-throated hummingbird(Archilochus colubris) -
local seasonal appearance

Based on 84 observations in Seymour township, Northumberland county, southeast Ontario, 1999-2023.

The season is short, from 07 May to 04 September, barely four months. The typical date of first return has been recorded elsewhere, downstream near Wilson Island, as 08 May (Barb Hogan, pers.commun., 2021). Sightings evidently peak in the first month and decline thereafter, perhaps a reflection of the rising availability of wildflowers after the scant offerings of April and early May. Given that we were away during mid-May for 10 days or more in at least 10 of the first 15 years reported, and with extensive absences through 2019, the predominance of May sightings is almost certainly under-reported. In 2014, the first hummingbird, a female, appeared at a newly-installed nectar feeder on 14 May, and a male visited 3 days later. At the time of this update in early August 2023, it was too early to say whether garden plantings of wildflowers in 2022-23 had yet attracted more hummingbird or insect pollinators.

The histogram below shows the incomplete knowledge of the bird as of the end of 2003, with just 17 observations. However, the short season for this summer visitor is affirmed by the latest compilation of 84 observations (and references to other watchers, such as Dolly Mills, some of whom would see this species far more than we did).

This species, the only hummingbird found across southern Ontario on a regular basis, is a common migrant and a breeding summer resident at Presqu'ile provincial park, roughly 40 km to the south, from early May to late September. It is found there from 01 May to 26 September, with migration peaks in late May and mid- to late August (LaForest, 1993, p.222). In Peterborough county, to the northwest, the hummingbird is most often seen from 01 May to 01 October, and most exceptionally as early as 17 April and as late as 01 November (Sadler, 1983, pp.100).

References