We live in North Idaho about 40 miles south of the Canadian border. We have a variety of hummingbirds here..Calliope, Rufous, Broad-tailed, Black-chinned. We see our first hummer about 4/15. Usually Rufous and Calliope. About mid to late May they all seem to 鈥渄isappear from our feeders鈥 for about 2-3 weeks. Then they all are back with a flurry. I am guessing that this lull must be due to nesting habits? They stay the rest of the summer here until early September. One thing we have found that is ultra important....clean your feeders once weekly and twice weekly in warm weather. This means dis-assemble them and scrub them with a bottle brush including the little feeding holes. Black mold is the danger to them and will form rapidly in warm weather. You don鈥檛 want to kill our little friends. Also remember. One cup of sugar to 4 cups of boiling water. Let cool off. Then add it to your cleaned feeders. We keep 4 feeders..each one out of sight of the others.
We live in North Idaho about 40 miles south of the Canadian border. We have a variety of hummingbirds here..Calliope, Rufous, Broad-tailed, Black-chinned. We see our first hummer about 4/15. Usually Rufous and Calliope. About mid to late May they all seem to 鈥渄isappear from our feeders鈥 for about 2-3 weeks. Then they all are back with a flurry. I am guessing that this lull must be due to nesting habits? They stay the rest of the summer here until early September. One thing we have found that is ultra important....clean your feeders once weekly and twice weekly in warm weather. This means dis-assemble them and scrub them with a bottle brush including the little feeding holes. Black mold is the danger to them and will form rapidly in warm weather. You don鈥檛 want to kill our little friends. Also remember. One cup of sugar to 4 cups of boiling water. Let cool off. Then add it to your cleaned feeders. We keep 4 feeders..each one out of sight of the others.