COMING SOON: It’s time to dust off the old hummingbird feeder –
the “redcoats” are coming, the “redcoats” are coming!

That’s the word today from the Pennsylvania Game Commission
which is encouraging residents to be on the lookout for
ruby-throated hummingbirds, the only hummingbirds regularly found
in Pennsylvania or east of the Mississippi in spring and
summer.

Hummingbirds begin to trickle into Pennsylvania in April and, by
May 1, they’re usually well established across the state, according
to Carl G. Roe, the commission’s executive director.

These tiny birds winter in Central and South America. When they
head north, they fly nonstop across the massive Gulf of Mexico and
then flit from flowerbed to feeder to flowerbed through the South
as they work their way north to their nesting grounds.

If you’re really interested in this migration, you can follow
their travels by checking out a website manned by citizen
particants. Go to Game Commission website (www.pgc.state.pa.us) and
find “Backyard Hummingbirds” section which includes a link to the
map being updated at Hummingbirds.net.

According to entries submitted so far, hummingbirds were first
spotted in Pennsylvania this year on April 4, in the southwestern
corner. Other sightings include the northeastern and eastern
portion of the state on April 5, and southcentral region on April
6.

Could we be far behind?

The Game Commission website also includes information about how
to make your backyard more hospitable to this charismatic bird.

Some people are convinced there’s a secret to getting
hummingbirds to visit their yards, explained Dan Brauning, the
agency’s Wildlife Diversity Section chief. As a rule, if you set
the table for hummingbirds, they will come. They’re really not that
finicky, and they’re surely interested in just about any feeding
location they uncover. So the secret – if there is one – is getting
noticed!

As long as the feeder is visible, filled with relatively fresh
nectar or sugar water, and hummingbirds have returned from their
wintering grounds, there’s a good chance you’ll attract
hummingbirds, noted Brauning.

It doesn’t hurt to window-dress your rock gardens or flowerbeds
with plants that hummingbirds seek out. But the feeder – preferably
one that incorporates red in its design for establishing a new
feeding location -is your first and best shot to attract early
hummingbirds.

And, yes, colorful flowers also help lure these annual
visitors.