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[joannecha]

Well, since they have been pretty consistent on times they appear at the feeder, my guess is that they are gone for their southerly digs. I was surprised that they stuck around this long. I live in central west Michigan. We had a cool spell last week, though it is warmed up right now. I've only been seeing the females this past week. Will miss the little stinkers until next May.

[Susan Louise]

We have hummers here til about mid-October here in eastern NE. At least in your area you see them during the breeding season too. We only see them when they migrate...in the Spring we only get about a dozen. 

The Fall migration period for us starts at the end of July. We don't see any during the Summer, so it's REAL easy to see when they actually start migrating...

We started birding in 2007 and put out our 1st hummingbird feeder at the end of July 2007. Since then our #'s have increased each year except during 2012 when the numbers dropped by 60% due to the severe drought. Our #'s have begun increasing again and this year is turning out to be a banner year. We could go over the 200 mark!

You might see a few more pass through

[gonnab]

Reporting in from southern Connecticut.  Hummers are stil around, although I seem to see more females than males.  Been unusually hot for this time of year so perhaps they are sticking around a bit longer.  But I do expect them to disappear soon.

[Susan Louise]

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@gonnab wrote:

Reporting in from southern Connecticut.  Hummers are stil around, although I seem to see more females than males.  Been unusually hot for this time of year so perhaps they are sticking around a bit longer.  But I do expect them to disappear soon.

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@gonnab Do you use binoculars or take pics? Many folks that don't do either and just have a feeder or two around think the same. However, what you may be seeing are juvie males too that don't have their full on mature male feathers in yet. Since many female hummingbirds will have 2 broods, it is usually fairly easy to tell if the juvie male was from the 1st brood earlier in the breeding season (late Spring/Summer) than a mid-Summer 2nd brood juvie male...which will have fewer red feathers showing/coming in. Without binoculars and a camera, from a distance they will look like females...just as 1st brood juvie males will have many feathers coming in and when the sunlight hits their throats, they look like mature males, but with binoculars or a zoom camera, one would be able to tell it is not a mature male yet.

Here are some pics as examples of varying degrees of growth of red feathers on juvie males...no 2 are exactly alike which makes it easy for us to ID them (we document our visitors)...

So percentages-wise to the number of male/female/juvies, take into consideration of the average of 2 broods each female will have (also averaging 2 eggs/juvies each...of coarse male and female juvies), and then of coarse the males. So during the Fall migration, it will 'seem' as though there are more females...HTH

This juvie male only has a single feather that grew in fully so far when this pic was taken...without a high zoom camera, most folks would think this was a female hummer...

[Susan Louise]

Here's a female in comparison

[joannecha]

Thanks for the info, Susan Louise. I couldn't figure out how to post one of my pictures here, but DH does have a picture one of the girls at the feeder--no red spotted so we're pretty sure they were all female.

[Susan Louise]

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@joannecha wrote:

Thanks for the info, Susan Louise. I couldn't figure out how to post one of my pictures here, but DH does have a picture one of the girls at the feeder--no red spotted so we're pretty sure they were all female.

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@joannecha  Glad to help! The pic your DH took probably of a female

I'm sure you are also getting juvies at your place too...hard to think you only get adults...lol 

How many feeders do you have? It might be fun to consider putting a camera up around your feeder/s next year. We have 4 cameras all around our home/feeders/gardens...

So far this year we have had 205+ RT hummingbirds! We will have them migrating through our area til about early-mid October.