Get the feeders ready. Waves of hungry hummingbirds are about to hit Wichita

Nick and Cathy Clausen spent a few minutes recently getting ready for visitors. About three inches long, those guests won’t take up much room, but they’ll probably arrive hungry.

“These little birds have to fatten up enough to cross the Gulf of Mexico,” said Nick Clausen, who watched as his wife hung a hummingbird feeder from a tree in their backyard.. “They have to almost double their body weight before they make that 500-mile trip. Hard to believe they can do it, non-stop, but they do.”

Clausen said within a few weeks thousands of ruby-throated hummingbirds, the only species of hummingbirds to consistently nest east of the Rocky Mountains, will start their southward migration. Some will be coming from as far north as southern Canada, burning and replacing calories along the way. Mostly hummingbirds feed on nectar from flowers but they’ve also learned to get needed energy from backyard feeders.

“Usually about the first of August is when the activity really picks up,” Clausen said. “Most are gone by the end of September.”

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