This is one of the most common online questions I see, and the honest answer depends on where you live — specifically, whether your local hummingbirds migrate at all.
If Hummingbirds Live in Your Area Year-Round — Just Leave Feeders Out
We're in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm still surprised by how many people around here don't realize Anna's hummingbirds never actually leave. They're not seasonal visitors — they're full-time residents, feeding at our feeders in the middle of January, even with the occasional snow on the ground. If you're in a region with a year-round resident species like Anna's — coastal Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, much of California, and parts of the desert Southwest — there's no real "putting feeders out" question. Just keep them up and maintained all year.
The one thing to watch for in freezing temperatures: nectar can freeze solid overnight. A stronger sugar ratio (closer to 3 parts water to 1 part sugar instead of the usual 4:1) lowers the freezing point somewhat, and some people use a small heat source or insulated feeder cover to keep it liquid during hard cold snaps. I started with a little clamp type lamp with a low wattage bulb underneath my regular feeders, and later upgraded to some small family business made heated hummingbird feeders that used a little bulb inside a custom glued-on base.
If You Only Get Migratory Species — Time It to Arrival
Rufous hummingbirds visit us too, but only seasonally — arriving in March and heading back south by mid to late summer. If your area only sees migratory species with no year-round residents, the safe rule of thumb is to put feeders out about one to two weeks before the earliest expected arrival date for your area, so there's food waiting the moment they arrive.
Arrival dates shift year to year and move north as spring progresses, so a fixed calendar date isn't reliable everywhere. Journey North tracks real-time, citizen-reported hummingbird migration sightings across North America and is the best resource I've found for checking when they're expected to reach your specific area.
Feeders Won't Stop Migration
A common worry is that leaving a feeder out too long in fall will "trick" hummingbirds into skipping migration. It won't. Migration is triggered by day length and hormonal changes, not food availability — a hummingbird that's ready to go will leave a full feeder behind without a second thought. If anything, keeping feeders out later helps: it gives late migrants passing through extra fuel for a long trip. Don't take your feeder down the moment your regulars disappear — leave it up for a couple of weeks after your last sighting in case stragglers are still moving through.
When in Doubt, Don't Wait
If you're not sure whether your area has migratory or year-round hummingbirds, Journey North and the Audubon Society's range maps are both good places to check for your specific species. But the safest default anywhere is simple: earlier is better than later in spring, and later is better than earlier in fall. An empty feeder never hurt anyone — but a hummingbird arriving to a yard with no working feeder may just move on to the next one.