Here's when hummingbirds leave Minnesota! (to migrate south)

Unfortunately, hummingbirds don’t live in Minnesota year-round. 🙁

At the end of every summer, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (the only common species in the state) depart Minnesota to migrate south to southern Mexico and Central America. They spend the winter here in the warm weather before coming back next spring!

So when exactly do hummingbirds leave Minnesota?

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds start their southward migration once their breeding season ends. It’s believed that they can sense the changes in the reduced number of daylight hours, flowers, and insects, which triggers their instinct to leave Minnesota.

This means that most hummingbirds leave Minnesota by the end of August or early September. By mid-September, almost all birds are gone, and they won’t return again until spring.

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But keep your eyes open for any hummingbirds that started their migration late. It’s not uncommon to see a straggler passing through Minnesota towards the end of September, especially if they started their migration from much higher north!

I’m guessing that the reason you wanted to know when hummingbirds leave Minnesota is that you were curious when you can put away your feeders for the winter?

Here’s what I always recommend:

Don’t take down your feeders until you haven’t seen a hummingbird for TWO weeks.

Once that happens, you can be very confident that almost all the hummingbirds in Minnesota have left for the year!

Trust me; you definitely don’t want to take away the nectar in your yard too early. Hummingbirds migrate a LONG way and need lots of ENERGY, which you can hopefully provide to them.