CINCINNATI — It's that time of year again for the faint buzz of tiny wings flapping 50 times per second to return to local yards and flower beds.
If you're in the Greater Cincinnati region, you're most likely to encounter the ruby-throated hummingbird, which flock to artificial feeders and nectar-rich blooms throughout the state each year. According to the Ohio Division of Wildlife the ruby-throated hummingbird is the only breeding hummingbird in Ohio and east of the Mississippi River.
According to hummingbirdcentral.com, a site tailored to bird-watchers specifically enamored with the tiny aviators, hummingbirds should have returned to all but the United States' westernmost states by this point in April.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife recommends preparing your hummingbird feeders now in order to maximize on sightings, since the birds will head out of Ohio by early September. Sugar water feeders for hummingbirds can be put out as early as mid-April, so they're available for the early birds heading north at this time.
To get the best out of a hummingbird feeder — and keep the birds themselves safe from illness — you should stick to sugar water as a nectar substitute, ODW said. Feeders should be cleaned and sugar solutions should be replaced frequently — at least every two to three days throughout the summer, ODW recommends.
Bird-watchers can keep an eye out for tiny nests between June and July; the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said peak breeding activity happens during those months and young often hatch the same month, since eggs are only incubated for 14 to 16 days. Baby hummingbirds will leave the nest less than one month later, just 20 to 22 days after hatching, ODNR said.
The nests that house those eggs are tiny — about the size of half an English walnut shell — and typically located in trees at the edge of woods, or forests with other openings like along a wooded stream or lake.
Hummingbirds are mostly solitary, keeping to themselves except in the breeding seasons; when several gather at a feeder or around the same source of nectar they can become aggressive, challenging one another and other birds at the site.
Hummingbirds join the ranks of bees, bats, butterflies and moths as pollinators, which have overall declined in many regions throughout the United States.
They don't just feast on nectar, however; they also feed on insects and small flowers plucked from the air, or from the petals of a flower — so never fear, a hummingbird will find nutrition wherever it goes, regardless of whether you choose to put a feeder out. Feeders can simply increase your chances of sightings of the ruby-throated hummingbird throughout the season, until it migrates away at the end of summer.
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