Vancouver Island has one all year Hummingbird the Anna's and the Rufous that comes here for breeding showing up in March and leaving in September.
There are also some rare visitors like the Calliope and Ruby-throated so its good to learn to identify your hummingbirds so you can spot a rare bird, also the males and females have different coloring and the juveniles have the same coloring as the females.
In our yard we get the Rufous Hummingbird and we had one rare visitor a juvenile male Ruby-throated.
Rufous are most abundant in May and June, this is when the juveniles are out and the adults are fattening up to start there migration south, this is the time most people put there feeders out and when your most likely to see a Hummingbird.
But the best time to put your feeders out is a week before they show up in your area, around the middle of March is a good time for the mid island. This is the time that the feeders will do the most good since food sources are still scarce and the Hummingbirds will be hungry since they just traveled from Mexico in a very short time period. A lot of Hummingbirds you see at this time of year are just going to tank up and carry on with there migration. They will remember the refueling spot though and will be looking for the feeder the next season. This also can be one of the busiest times at the feeder with dozens of hummingbirds trying to get in for a drink.
You can track the Rufous migration and report your own sightings here: Rufous Migration Map
First you will see the males, they come to set up territories before the females arrive, then a week later the females will start showing up. Courtship will start right away and it won't be long before the females are building a nest, the males will continue courting females but they don't help with nest building or rearing of the young.
Female Hummingbird activity will slow down at the feeder while they are nest building and rearing young, they will be feeding invertebrates like spiders and gnats to them for the protein, the nectar they consume will provide the energy for the insect hunting they will do. How much female activity you see will depend on how far the nests are, if you're seeing them through out the day the nests could be within a few hundred feet.
Hummgingbird feeders are good for bring them in close to our homes so we can enjoy an up close view and for helping out migrating birds, as long as they have enough natural habitat they do fine with out our feeders.
You will notice other times that the Hummingbirds are not coming around to the feeders as much and this is because of blooming periods of there natural food sources, they really prefer this natural food.
When they first show up they feed on Sapsucker wells and invertebrates, soon after the Red Flowering Currants bloom then after that the Salmon Berries,
Black Twinberry, Columbine, Bleeding Hearts, flowering trees like Maple and Dogwood, Vines like Orange Honeysuckle.
The above native plants are the best plants to have in your garden for feeding hummingbirds, there also the easiest to take care of.
There are also a number other plants that work well for feeding Hummingbirds some are grown as annuals and need to be started early and some are perennial. The idea is to have a succession of blooms through out the season, here is what I have in my yard that works well, but what is liked one year may not get good activity the next year so all you can do is offer a good variety of nectar producing blooms. Quantity is important in that Hummingbirds like to work a patch of the same type of blossom.
Lungwort
Red Flowering Currant
Salmon Berry
Black Twinberry
Columbine
Bleeding Hearts
Chilean Glory Vine
Siberian Iris
Nasturtium
Phygelius
Salvia exserta
Salvia subrotunda
Salvia darcyi
Canna indica
Agastache "Heather Queen"
Agastache "Tutti Frutti"
Agastache "Apricot Sunrise"
Bee Balm "Jacob Cline"
Candy Corn Vine
Hardy Fuchsia
Stachys cooleyae
Scrophularia californica
Henderson Checker Mallow
Hosta
Raspberries
Salvia "Marachino"
Salvia "Hotlips"
Penstemon "Tubular Bells"
Honeysuckle "Dropmore Scarlet"
Orange Honeysuckle
Salal
Tall Oregon Grape
Brazilian Verbena
Himalayan Honeysuckle
Cardinal Flower
Crocosmia "Lucifer"
Having nectar producing plants, trees and shrubs will encourage Hummingbirds that will not go to a feeder to your yard, many juvenile Hummingbirds have no interest in feeders, the juvenile male Ruby-throated that visited us didn't use the feeders and with out the flowering plants we would not have seen him.
Insects are an important part of a Hummingbirds diet and a healthy garden has many, but any use of pesticides will harm the beneficial insects and Hummingbirds so its important that they are not used in a wildlife garden.
You can provide additional insects with a bin of kitchen scraps, this will attract fruit flies that will multiple with a steady supply of fresh scraps.
Water is important for bathing, I don't know if they use if for drinking since they get fluids from the nectar they drink. Hummingbirds just love to bathe, but don't use static water, they like a very shallow stream or a spray, many times I have been watering the garden with a hose and have had a Hummingbird come in to the spray and twirl around getting all sides wet.
Our water fall gets used and also a hose left on a fine spray will get used, water only needs to be 1/4" to 1/2" deep with lots of splashing, watching them bathe is one of the most enjoyable Hummingbird experiences.
Hummingbirds spend 80 percent of there time perched, this conserves energy and gives them a spot to watch there territories. They like a bare branch out in the open so they can get a good view all around when on territory watch so its good to not prune every thing off. We were so glad there there were a few dead ends left on the Honeysuckle that is growing on the swing bench, they would perch within a couple of feet of us when we sat there, you would hear them feeding on the Honeysuckle then the sound of there wings would stop suddenly and when you looked up there one would be on the dead end that I didn't trim.
Larger trees also provide shelter for when they go to roost for the night and for nesting.
Watching the Hummingbirds in the yard feeding on flowers, bathing and perching is very rewarding, we even have returning Hummingbirds that we recognize and wait for there return every year.
