i appreciate your concern but 1 species of hummingbird has been hanging around here way before we moved here.
with everything frozen how would they survive without people putting out fluids for them?
do you think that after many generations here that if suddenly no one put out feeders they would then fly south?????

@callmedubious Yes, if their feeding source disappears, they’ll migrate. I, having continued from my Great-grandmother, fed Rufous Hummingbirds at our isolated valley in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range for decades. We’d get hundreds ..stopped short of having a local news crew out to film them once. They’d collectively drink more than a half gallon a day during peak season.

But, we knew to stop feeding near the seasons end. And of all those birds (I’d find a nest about every-other year), none hung around into Winter.

My Dad’s at the Ore. Coast, Sister’s in the Willamette Valley, and yes, they’re seeing HB’s year-round. Because others are feeding them.. So, they feed them too, obviously compounding the problem and numbers.

We’d note the prime males returning first, around March 6th; there’s an online site that tracks their northerly migration every spring, because they migrate. They can go into a ‘temporary hibernation’ or ‘dormancy’ during late snow falls or frigid weather; but that’s not meant for surviving an entire winter.

Just as you shouldn’t put red food coloring in their ..nectar, they should not be fed into Fall… Not sure were in Canada you are, but unless it’s very close to the Pacific, I can’t imagine any significant number of them surviving a harsher winter.

It’s an argument I’ve not won with my father or sister … so don’t expect to get far. But came to know those little dudes well. I’ve now got their East Coast counterparts here on VA’s Blue Ridge … and a neighbor who feels, the thicker he mixes his ‘nectar,’ the more HB’s he’ll have. Though that’s another argument

@Varn ,
we are on vancouver isle where temps are just a little colder than seattle.

Anna’s hummingbirds can be seen all year from BC south to the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. They are not uncommon in the southern coastal areas of Western BC in winter. Five to 7 years ago the Anna’s Hummingbirds started wintering over in the Fraser Valley and further north.

another species shows up in march.

@callmedubious OK, Anna’s, as opposed to Rufous.. Not sure if they’re overwintering in the Willamette Valley, but it sounds likely. Honestly, I couldn't tell them apart in the field. But with their aggressive behavior, I doubt the two species spend time around each other.

Sounds like the warming side of ‘climate change’ is opening up new territory.. And with a dependence on humans, I wish them luck