{"id":183717,"date":"2025-10-01T23:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T23:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/183717\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T23:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T23:49:07","slug":"where-do-hummingbirds-go-when-it-gets-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/183717\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Do Hummingbirds Go When It Gets Cold?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hummingbirds are pretty amazing creatures. They’re the smallest bird\u2014most weigh less than a nickel\u2014and they’re also the only bird that can fly backward. In terms of speed, they can set some records: their hearts beat upwards of 1,200 times per minute when they’re flying, and their wings can beat upwards of 80 times per second! <\/p>\n

Being so small and so delicate looking, you might wonder what happens to those little guys when it starts to get really cold out. But they’re much tougher than they look. Especially the ones here: Of the more than 360 known species, only about 15 are found in North America, and while most hummingbirds don’t migrate, almost all of the ones that live here do, and some travel very, very far. <\/p>\n

The most widely-known hummingbird, the ruby-throated hummingbird, travels from as far north as lower Canada, all the way to Central America. Other birds such as the rufous hummingbird travel from as far north as Alaska all the way to the Southwestern US and Mexico. That’s one of the longest migrations in the world<\/a>\u2014especially as measured by body size! <\/p>\n

That migration may be faster than you think: \u201cA long-distance migration from North America to Central America probably takes 2 to 3 weeks depending on how long they stay at resting spots along the way,\u201d said Emma Grieg, PhD, the late project leader of Project FeederWatch<\/a> at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When Country Living interviewed Dr. Grieg last year, she addressed a few more of our most common questions about hummingbird travel. <\/p>\n

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Mike Bons\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Why Do Hummingbirds Migrate?<\/p>\n

In short, to find food: \u201cThe shortening days in northern latitudes cue them to make a move before all the food disappears,\u201d said Grieg. <\/p>\n

Before they head south, they stock up on as much nourishment as they can before migrating. That\u2019s why it\u2019s helpful to keep your hummingbird feeder up until a few weeks after you see the last hummers in your garden.<\/p>\n

Related StoriesWhen Do Hummingbirds Migrate?<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll start to see them move south from northern latitudes sometime in late summer to early fall, said Grieg. <\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry: hummers won’t get confused if you keep your feeder up throughout the fall. Keeping food available doesn\u2019t interfere with migration. <\/p>\n

It actually gives them a nice boost of energy as they begin or continue their trips south. \u201cYour feeders will not keep them from migrating,\u201d said Grieg. <\/p>\n

In fact, if you live somewhere that sees hummers all winter, such as south Texas or Florida, it\u2019s fine to leave your feeders up all year to enjoy their antics. <\/p>\n

\"ruby\"pinterest\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stan Tekiela Author \/ Naturalist \/ Wildlife Photographer\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Do Hummingbirds Migrate Together?<\/p>\n

Actually, hummingbirds travel solo, as they live much of their lives. \u201cHummingbirds aren\u2019t particularly social birds,\u201d said Grieg. \u201cThe males tend to leave first. Because they don\u2019t help with rearing young, they can hit the road before females do.\u201d<\/p>\n

And no matter what social media myths you\u2019ve read, they do not hitch a ride on the backs of geese! They\u2019re on their own for the long journey south. <\/p>\n

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Daniel Ripplinger \/ DansPhotoArt\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Do Hummingbirds Come Back to the Same Place Every Year?<\/p>\n

\u201cSome do, yes!\u201d said Grieg. \u201cFrom research on banded birds, we have found that some hummingbirds come back to the same yards year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, keep your feeders full and plant plenty of hummingbird-attracting flowers<\/a> so you can be ready for them to return to your garden next spring!<\/p>\n

What Is the Life Expectancy of a Hummingbird?<\/p>\n

While most hummingbirds in North America live only a few years\u2014typically between 3 and 5 years\u2014there are individual birds that have been known to live much longer. The Cornell Ornithology Lab has documented a Ruby-throated Hummingbird that was over 9 years old<\/a> and a Rivoli’s Hummingbird that was at least 11<\/a>! <\/p>\n

While hummingbirds are fast, there are animals that will prey on them, including other birds like smaller hawks and kestrels, as well as occasional poisonous spiders, preying mantises, and of course cats. So if you have a cat be sure to keep it well away from your feeder at all times.<\/p>\n

Where Do Hummingbirds Go at Night?<\/p>\n

Hummingbirds, believe it or not, are deep sleepers! After a long day of activity, sometimes gathering nectar from hundreds and hundreds of flowers, they return to their nest or to a safely hidden branch and enter a kind of sleep known as torpor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In torpor, their body temperature, heart rate, and metabolism all drop drastically, much like a mini-hibernation. It can take them up to 30 minutes to return to their daytime state. They’re among only a few species of birds known to do this. <\/p>\n

Related Story\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Emma Greig, Ph.D.,<\/a> was the longtime Project Leader of Project FeederWatch, a program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that crowdsources data from the public to study and understand the distribution and abundance of birds that visit feeders in North America. Prior to joining the FeederWatch team in 2013, Emma was a postdoctoral associate in Macaulay Library<\/a> at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Emma held a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and studied birds in Australia, Malaysia, and Hawaii. In December 2024, Emma passed away from cancer at age 43. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hummingbirds are pretty amazing creatures. They’re the smallest bird\u2014most weigh less than a nickel\u2014and they’re also the only…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,3769,117580,430,2387,128,117579,338],"class_list":{"0":"post-183717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-content-type-how-to-service","11":"tag-contentid-99e2c415-31d1-42b0-9b10-1453c4d4ede1","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-locale-us","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-shorttitle-where-do-hummingbirds-go-when-it-gets-cold","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}