Date: 9/21/25 11:25 am From: Anne Annibali <anneanni...> Subject: Hummers Still Here
Quite a few hummers still coming to my feeders — all females. Usually by this date, there's only one or two hardy souls hanging around for a little while longer. Not sure when I last saw a male but it's probably been a couple of weeks. There's plenty of flower nectar still available in my garden too and the blue sages in my pots are huge and loaded with blossoms, so maybe that's why they haven't left yet.
And just for fun, I started speculating why males head south so much earlier than females. My theory is that after they succeeded in finding mates, males had all summer to laze around and build up their reserves for the trip south. They sure had enough surplus energy to waste on territorial fights at the feeders. And meanwhile, females were working non-stop to build nests and raise young, likely depleting their energy stores pretty severely. So on top of getting a later start, it takes them a lot longer to build up enough energy to be sure they can make it. If I were a hummingbird, I'd be very jealous of other species where both parents work together to raise the young.
