The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is Michigan's only regularly occurring hummingbird — three and a half grams of iridescent green with wings that beat over fifty times a second. The male's throat is a gorget of stacked ruby scales that flashes fire or reads black depending on the angle of light. They hover, fly backward, and defend nectar sources with a ferocity out of all proportion to their size.
Ruby-throats arrive in Michigan in early May and depart by early October, with males leaving weeks before females and young. Their fall migration includes, for many, a nonstop crossing of the Gulf of Mexico — an 18-to-20-hour flight on fat reserves that nearly double their body weight.
Nectar from tubular flowers — jewelweed, bee balm, cardinal flower — and sugar water at feeders, balanced with surprising numbers of small insects and spiders for protein. They also sip sap from sapsucker wells in early spring.
One part plain white sugar to four parts water, no dye. Change it every 2–3 days in summer heat (daily in a heat wave) and rinse the feeder well — fermented nectar is harmful.
Up by the last week of April; down in mid-October, or a couple of weeks after your last sighting. A feeder left up does NOT stop hummingbirds from migrating — it just helps stragglers refuel.
Ruby-throats are fiercely territorial about food. Hanging two or three feeders out of sight of each other beats one big feeder — a single bird can't guard them all.
Probably a hummingbird moth (a sphinx moth). They hover at flowers just like hummingbirds but have antennae and fly at dusk. It's one of the most common mistaken-identity reports in Michigan.
The peak falls from June through September, when the population is at its highest. The full window runs from May to October, with birds scarce at both edges.
Immature males have a white throat with fine dark streaking and often a few scattered iridescent red feathers, while adult females have a plain white throat. Full ruby gorgets appear in their first spring.
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