Ruby-throated Hummingbirds Swarm at the Gulf Coast

Ruby-throated hummingbirds August 2019, Alberta (photo by dfaulder via Flickr Creative Commons license) 14 September 2026 Ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) are heading south now to their winter homes in Central America. This week they are still abundant in Pittsburgh but their numbers will wane rapidly. They’ll be gone by the end of the September. Eventually they reach the Gulf coast and pause to fuel up for the next leg of their journey. They swarm these feeders in Mississippi (filmed 4 Sep 2026). video embedded from Hummingbird News on YouTube And they visit this hummingbird hotspot in Covington, Louisiana, home of Margaret “Birdie” Owens. (video from spring 2026) video from April 2026, embedded from InvestigateTV on YouTube Ruby-throats are known for flying 20 hours non-stop over the Gulf of Mexico in spring, but it appears most of them take the overland route in the fall. I reached this conclusion by watching the week-by-week abundance animation from eBird Status…