Hummingbirds Are Heading South Through Northern Illinois

Another headline I considered was "Stuff You Notice When You're Quarantined And Bored," but I thought it was too abstract. My neighbor wasn't fond of it either when I yelled it to him for approval over the backyard fence. Might be the mask.

Anyway, we've got a couple of these in the previously mentioned back yard:

And these feeders are getting quite the workout lately. I've noticed that several of my neighbors have feeders as well, and theirs are just as crowded.

Why The Sudden Influx Of The World's Tiniest Birds Into Rockford?

It's migration time, and the millions of hummingbirds that came through our area on their way to places as far north as Canada are making that long trek back right through Northern Illinois. But in order to make it, they need to find as much as they can to fuel up along the way. Plenty of backyard feeders are a great help, according to the Farmer's Almanac.

Hummingbirds Will Remember You When They Come Back

Unlike many other birds, hummingbirds make their way solo during migration, not in flocks. Having traveled south in a van full of dudes for Spring Break, I totally get it. Being gifted with an incredible sense of recall, these migrating hummingbirds remember the routes they've taken and the food sources along the way. JourneyNorth.org:

Hummingbird migration is a stop and go journey. Banding has shown that migrating hummingbirds have great fidelity to their migration routes. Amazingly, banders have reported annual encounters with banded birds on the same day each year. The exact guidance system is unknown, but it seems mainly instinctive.

How Much Longer Will Hummingbirds Be Around Here?

According to the Chicago Botanic Garden, hummingbirds generally will be out of our area by about the second week in October. Also, you don't have to take your feeder down because you're worried that the hummingbird will forget to leave when they have adequate food here. When it's time to go, the Chicago Botanic Garden says they birds will will know, and head south whether there's a full feeder or not.