Having worked at Wild Birds Unlimited - Little Rock for the past 20 years, about ten years ago I began noticing people coming in saying they didn't have the hummers they used to have. For the next five years, I kept telling people that the anecdotal evidence was that there were fewer and fewer hummers. It hasn't been until the past couple years that people are taking notice of what I have been preaching for ten years or so.
Again, my evidence is anecdotal, but I am finding that people in urban areas are seeing fewer and fewer hummingbirds, but folks who live in rural areas are not seeing the same trend. This makes sense to me as, according to Tallamy, 50-80% of a hummingbird's diet is small, flying insects and municipalities regularly fog for "mosquitoes" at night and yard spraying has become a regular things as well. The challenge is, again according to Tallamy, spraying for mosquitoes is not particularly effective on mosquitoes but it is very effective at killing just about all other insects. Without sufficient protein and fat to consume, the hummers either need to move or they die. My fear (nothing to back this up) is that, since their urge to return to the same sots each year is so strong, moving away from those spots might be counter intuitive and therefore they may die for lack of nutrition. The other issue is people not changing nectar often enough...but I am preaching to the choir here...I hope. That being said, those are the things that WE have control over. We have no control over what may be happening in their overwintering sites, and that may be even more devastating to the population.
Yes, the struggle is real!
John
[cid:a8058cee-f12b-4c2f-89e9-146a04b97960]
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From: The Birds of Arkansas Discussion List <ARBIRD-L...> on behalf of zoe caywood <zcaywood...>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 11:35 AM
To: <ARBIRD-L...> <ARBIRD-L...>
Subject: Lack of hummers
Quite disturbing and perplexing to me is lack of hummingbirds at my place. I normally have 8 - 4 cup feeders out & are refilling nearly everyday. I have 1 feeder out with only 2 cups of nectar that is never empty before I need to refresh it.
I lost a giant Trumpet vine during the tornado & lots & lots of trees and plants which must be the cause of the diminished hummer population. Does anyone have any thoughts??
