By the time you read this, “your” hummingbirds might have returned. Or maybe you belong to them. Common is the story of newly arrived hummingbirds hovering in front of windows, angrily chittering if their feeders have not yet been hung. Hummingbirds have long memories. The slothful homeowner is shamed into rushing out with the sprite’s supply of sugar water.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds begin returning from tropical wintering haunts in the third week of April, and have recolonized Ohio by mid-May. These 3-gram elfins mostly winter from western Mexico south to Panama.
In an epic migration, many ruby-throated hummingbirds travel across the Gulf of Mexico. This nonstop water crossing is nearly 600 miles. Once the birds make landfall along the Gulf Coast, they still have 750 miles to go to reach your central Ohio yard.