Ruby-throated Hummingbird in May

May is the peak of the birding year. Migration floods the North, dawn chorus is at its loudest, and nesting is underway across most of the continent. By month's end the first broods of the year are hatching in mid-latitudes.

For the Ruby-throated Hummingbird specifically, May is a spring month inside the nesting season — one of the most active and demanding periods of this bird's year. Across the 44 states and provinces where ruby-throated hummingbirds occur, what the bird is doing this month depends heavily on latitude — the details below break it down by band.

Southern states

absent

Mid-latitudes

summer breeder

Northern states & Canada

absent

In May, ruby-throated hummingbirds are absent in the South, summer breeder across the mid-latitudes, and absent in the northern states and Canada. That north–south split is the defining feature of this month: where you live changes which version of this bird you're looking at.

May is inside the Ruby-throated Hummingbird nesting season — about a month earlier in the South and a month later in the North. Nest: walnut-sized cup of plant down bound with spider silk, saddled on a downward-sloping branch. Clutch 1–3 eggs (usually 2), incubation 12–14 days, 1–2 per season.

In the South the season is already underway, while northern birds are still settling territories — a pair in Florida or Texas may be on eggs weeks before a pair in Minnesota or Ontario has even chosen a nest site. During the nesting months, adults switch to protein-rich foods for their young, become more secretive around the nest site, and often visit feeders in quick, purposeful trips rather than lingering.

• Nectar from tubular red and orange flowers
• Gnats, mosquitoes and small spiders

Change nectar every 2 days in hot weather (under 80°F, every 4–5 days) and clean the feeder each refill. Males defend feeders aggressively; several feeders out of sight of each other help.

Adults feeding nestlings need easy calories. Some species that ignored feeders all winter now visit regularly, and you may see fledglings brought to feeders by their parents.

Full Ruby-throated Hummingbird diet guide → · Best feeder for ruby-throated hummingbirds →

In May, the best watching is around food rather than the nest — adults make repeated foraging trips and are most visible at dawn and dusk. Give nesting birds space: if a bird is carrying food or scolding you persistently, you're close to a nest and should back off.

The state guides below show exactly where in your region ruby-throated hummingbirds are expected this month and which native plants hold them in a yard.

AlabamaAlbertaArkansasConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineManitobaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippi