Quick Answer: Hang your hummingbird feeder one to two weeks before hummingbirds normally arrive in your area — which means early March on the Gulf Coast and in the Southeast, and late April in the Northeast, per Audubon. In fall, do the opposite of what most people do: leave the feeder up at least two weeks after your last sighting, because feeders do not delay migration. Audubon is explicit that hummingbirds “are genetically programmed to head south in the fall” and that “it’s not a lack of nectar source or colder weather that makes them leave.” Fill it with a 1:4 sugar-to-water solution — ¼ cup of white sugar per cup of water — and never with red dye.
There are two dates that matter each year, and almost everyone gets the second one wrong. The spring date is a scheduling problem: put the feeder out too late and the first males pass your yard, find nothing, and set up somewhere else. The fall date is a belief problem: millions of feeders come down in September because of a myth that a full feeder will strand birds through the winter. It won’t. Here is the timing, by region, with the reasoning behind it.
Hummingbird feeder timing by the numbers
- Early March in the Southeast, late April in the Northeast. Audubon’s advice is to “put nectar out by early March if you live in the Southeast, and by late April if you live in the Northeast.” Those seven weeks of spread are why generic “hang it in April” advice fails half the country.
- About a week ahead, per Audubon. The official line is to “put the feeder out about a week before they normally arrive in your yard.” We recommend two weeks instead — the downside of being early is a little wasted sugar water, and the downside of being late is losing the season’s first territorial male to a neighbour’s yard.
- A two-month northward march. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds arrive “in numbers along the Gulf Coast by early March, filtering northward over the next two months until arriving in northern states and southern provinces by late April or early May,” according to Audubon. Your latitude, not the calendar, sets your date.
- Rufous reach Oregon by the end of February. Audubon notes Rufous Hummingbirds “move northward early — as far north as Oregon by the end of February,” which makes the Pacific Northwest one of the earliest hang dates in the country despite being one of the most northerly.
- 1:4 sugar to water, no dye. Audubon: “the best (and least expensive) solution for your feeder is a 1:4 solution of refined white sugar to tap water. That’s ¼ cup of sugar in 1 cup of water.” Red coloring, the same source says, “is not necessary and the reddening chemicals could prove to be harmful to the birds.”
- Daily cleaning in hot weather. Audubon’s cadence: emptied and cleaned “every day or every other day” in hot weather, every three days in temperate weather, twice per week when it is cool. This is the single most-ignored number in hummingbird feeding.
When to hang your feeder: region by region
| Region | Main species | Typical arrival | Hang the feeder by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulf Coast / Deep South | Ruby-throated | Early March, in numbers | Mid-to-late February |
| Southeast | Ruby-throated | Early March onward | Late February (year-round in parts) |
| Mid-Atlantic / Midwest | Ruby-throated | Late March to mid-April | Mid-March |
| Northeast / Upper Midwest | Ruby-throated | Late April to early May | Mid-April |
| Southern Rockies / border states | Black-chinned, Broad-tailed, Calliope, Rufous | Early March near the Mexican border | Late February |
| Northern Rockies | Broad-tailed, Rufous, Calliope | Early to mid-May | Late April |
| Pacific Northwest | Rufous, Anna's | Rufous as far north as Oregon by late February | Mid-February |
| Southwest / West Coast | Anna's, Allen's, Rufous, Broad-billed and others | Present year-round | Keep one up all year |
Arrival windows are drawn from Audubon’s spring guidance; the hang dates apply our two-week buffer. Two regional notes worth reading twice. First, the Southwest and West Coast do not have a hang date — Audubon lists Anna’s, Allen’s, Rufous, Blue-throated, Rivoli’s, Broad-billed and White-eared as present year-round there, so the feeder simply stays up and the cleaning schedule becomes the whole job. Second, the Pacific Northwest hangs earlier than Pennsylvania, which surprises people every year: Rufous run the coastal route north far ahead of the Ruby-throated’s slow inland spread.
To pin your own town down rather than your region, use a crowdsourced first-sighting map. Hummingbird Central tracks the spring migration “from late-January until the end of May of each year” from viewer-submitted reports, giving priority to confirmed sightings along the migration’s leading edge. Find the closest reports from previous years, subtract two weeks, and put a repeating reminder in your calendar.
A saucer-style hummingbird feeder (the one that survives the schedule)
- Saucer designs hold nectar below the ports, so they do not drip and do not draw ants the way inverted-bottle feeders do.
- Two-part bodies come apart in seconds — the difference between a daily hot-weather clean and a chore you skip.
- Built-in ant moats and bee guards handle the two pests that make people give up in July.
- Small capacity is a feature in spring: fill it a third full so nothing ferments while traffic is still light.
Arrivals do not wait for shipping — try Amazon Prime free for 30 days so the feeder and the first bag of sugar land before your region’s hang date rather than after it.
If you would rather compare specific models before buying, our best hummingbird feeders guide ranks them on exactly the criteria that matter here — leak resistance and how fast they come apart for cleaning — and our glass hummingbird feeder roundup covers the versions that do not cloud or warp after a season in the sun.
The fall myth that costs late migrants
Here is the claim you will hear every September: take your feeder down, or the hummingbirds won’t migrate. It is wrong, and Audubon rebuts it without hedging — “hummingbirds are migratory species and are genetically programmed to head south in the fall. It’s not a lack of nectar source or colder weather that makes them leave.” Migration is driven by internal cycles and day length, not by whether your yard has sugar water in it.
Audubon’s actual fall guidance is the opposite of the myth: “you can leave your feeders out for as long as you have hummingbirds around. You can even continue to provide the feeder after your hummingbirds disappear.” The practical rule that follows is two weeks past your last sighting, minimum — for most of the country, late September in the coldest zones through late October in the mild South.
The reason that buffer matters is who is still moving. Adults leave first; the birds passing through afterward are largely juveniles on their first migration, flying a route they have never flown, days or weeks behind the experienced birds. A yard that reliably had nectar in August and is empty in October is precisely the yard those birds cannot afford to find.
Spring setup vs fall shutdown
| Task | Spring | Fall |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger date | 1–2 weeks before regional arrival | 2 weeks after your last sighting |
| Fill level | One-third full — traffic is light | One-third full — traffic is thinning |
| Nectar | 1:4 sugar to water, no dye | Same 1:4 mix; some feeders use it slightly stronger in cold snaps |
| Cleaning | Every 3 days in temperate weather | Twice weekly as temperatures drop |
| Common mistake | Hanging it after the first males arrive | Taking it down while juveniles are still passing |
| Pest control | Ant moat filled before the first warm week | Wasps peak in late summer — bee guards matter most now |
Both columns share one requirement: a feeder small enough and simple enough that you keep up with it. A one-litre bottle feeder filled to the top in July is a fermentation tank, not a kindness. Fill any feeder about a third full outside of peak season and you will hit the cleaning schedule instead of dreading it.
Three things to have ready before your hang date
A filled ant moat. Ants find nectar within days of the first warm week and a colonised feeder gets abandoned by the birds. The moat is a cup of plain water above the feeder — nothing else, no oil. Our ant moat guide covers the built-in versus add-on options.
Sugar, not honey or brown sugar. Audubon specifies refined white sugar for a reason: honey ferments quickly and can promote fungal growth, and unrefined sugars carry iron levels hummingbirds do not tolerate well. If you would rather buy a pre-made mix than measure, our best hummingbird nectar picks are all dye-free.
A spot you can see and reach. The feeder you hang at the far fence line is the feeder you stop cleaning in August. Put it where you will look at it daily — and if you want the arrival date captured automatically, a hummingbird feeder camera will timestamp the first bird of the season for you, which over a few years turns into genuinely useful local data.
The bottom line
Spring: two weeks early, every time. Early March in the Southeast, mid-March in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, mid-April in the Northeast, mid-February in the Pacific Northwest, and year-round along the West Coast and Southwest. Being early costs a cup of sugar water; being late costs you the season’s first territorial male.
Fall: two weeks late, every time. The migration myth is settled — Audubon says outright that departure is genetically programmed, not triggered by an empty feeder — and the birds still passing through are the inexperienced juveniles that need the stop most. Keep it clean on Audubon’s schedule (daily in heat, every three days in temperate weather, twice weekly when cool) and the same feeder will serve both ends of the year.