Ruby-throated hummingbird hovering (photo from Wikimedia)

9 October 2026

One of the easiest hummingbirds to see on our birding tour in Veracruz, Mexico were our own ruby-throats. Right now they are still moving south but in only five months they’ll be on their way north again. Most of them are in the Mexican highlands right now but there’s a hotspot in the lowlands at the coast where we saw many. (Blue arrow on this eBird occurrence map for week of 4 Oct.)

Weekly abundance of ruby-throated hummingbirds, week of 4 October (map from eBird Status and Trends)

Over the winter most of them stay in Mexico while others continue as far south as Costa Rica. By early February they are all restless. Some of them mass at the Yucatan coast to take the shortest route north over open water across the Gulf. Soon they are on their way, flying non-stop across the Gulf for 18 to 24 hours.

As hummingbirds approach the U.S. coast they encounter many oil and gas rigs — green dots on this map by NOAA NCEI.

Map of oil and gas rigs and pipelines from NOAA NCEI. map pulled 20261009

Sometimes they are attracted to red colors on the rigs, as seen in the video below:

On 21 February 2018, Chuck, working on a drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, noticed humming birds hitting him on his red bandana and red coveralls. He saw another group hitting a fire extinguisher. He decided to get a cup of sugar water and watch what happened next.

Watch the hummingbirds pause for a sip while migrating across the Gulf.

*p.s. Here’s eBird’s ruby-throated hummingbird abundance map for the week of 1 February. Note the group in the Yucatan about to fly north over the Gulf.

Weekly abundance of ruby-throated hummingbirds, week of 1 February (map from eBird Status and Trends)