Subject · Wildlife · Bird

Rufous Hummingbird

Selasphorus rufus · best Feb–Sep, Nov–Dec

In season now

Where and when

Months by place

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Sitka and Baranof Island, Tongass forest edge along Sawmill Creek and Starrigavan; also Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell. Northern edge of breeding range runs to Prince William Sound., United States of America

Vancouver Island and the BC Lower Mainland, Olympic Peninsula, Washington and Oregon coast ranges. Wild salmonberry and red flowering currant thickets at the forest edge, plus the coastal valley and foothill corridors that form the spring floral highway the loop follows north., Canada

Gothic and Washington Gulch, Crested Butte, Gunnison County, Colorado. Subalpine meadows 2700 to 3400m. Rustler's Gulch and Hasley Basin for the higher, later bloom. Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory at Gothic is the research anchor.

Ramsey Canyon Preserve

Rufous Hummingbird shooting windows: places down, months across
Subject	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Sitka and Baranof Island, Tongass forest edge along Sawmill Creek and Starrigavan; also Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell. Northern edge of breeding range runs to Prince William Sound., United States of America	In season	Peak	Outside the window	Peak	Peak	Peak	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Peak	Peak
Vancouver Island and the BC Lower Mainland, Olympic Peninsula, Washington and Oregon coast ranges. Wild salmonberry and red flowering currant thickets at the forest edge, plus the coastal valley and foothill corridors that form the spring floral highway the loop follows north., Canada	Outside the window	Outside the window	In season	Peak	Peak	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window
Gothic and Washington Gulch, Crested Butte, Gunnison County, Colorado. Subalpine meadows 2700 to 3400m. Rustler's Gulch and Hasley Basin for the higher, later bloom. Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory at Gothic is the research anchor.	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Peak	Peak	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window
Ramsey Canyon Preserve	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window	Peak	Peak	Peak	Outside the window	Outside the window	Outside the window

Best for November

Odds: Near certain, 5 of 5. Verdict: Acceptable.
Rufous Hummingbird at Ramsey Canyon Preserve: you will almost certainly see it (Jul–Sep)
Odds: Likely, 4 of 5. Verdict: Prime.
Rufous Hummingbird at Sitka and Baranof Island, Tongass forest edge along Sawmill Creek and Starrigavan; also Juneau, Ketchikan, Petersburg, Wrangell. Northern edge of breeding range runs to Prince William Sound., United States of America: you will probably see it (Apr–Jun)
Odds: Likely, 4 of 5. Verdict: Good.
Rufous Hummingbird at Vancouver Island and the BC Lower Mainland, Olympic Peninsula, Washington and Oregon coast ranges. Wild salmonberry and red flowering currant thickets at the forest edge, plus the coastal valley and foothill corridors that form the spring floral highway the loop follows north., Canada: you will probably see it (Mar–May)

Its year

Across its windows

Rufous Hummingbird — Southeast Alaska coastal rainforest — May to mid June

Shoot window

Rufous Hummingbird: you will probably see it (Apr–Jun)

Rufous Hummingbird by month
Month	Presence
Jan	Outside the window
Feb	Outside the window
Mar	Peak
Apr	Peak
May	Peak
Jun	Peak
Jul	Outside the window
Aug	Outside the window
Sep	Outside the window
Oct	Outside the window
Nov	Outside the window
Dec	Outside the window

Peak: Mid May to mid June. Males arrive in southeast Alaska from March and spread north through April, females a week or two behind; both feed and fight for territories until June. Birds go quiet once incubation starts at the peak of the salmonberry and blueberry bloom, and adult males start leaving from late June.
Days needed: 10 days
Behaviour: Courtship / display, Territorial fighting, Nesting
Coat: Breeding plumage
Habitat: Green season / lush, Wetland / water
Crowds: Quiet
Also here: Bald eagle, Sitka black tailed deer, black bear on the intertidal, brown bear on Admiralty and Baranof, harlequin duck, marbled murrelet, humpback whale in Sitka Sound, sea otter.

Light: Sitka 57.05N. Max solar altitude roughly 50 deg mid May, 56 deg at solstice, so midday is high on the rare clear day. That barely matters. Sitka records only 6h12m of sunshine in May and 6h09m in June against 16h29m and 17h47m of daylight, and blue sky covers just 21 to 22 percent of the sky. So roughly 60 to 65 percent of all daylight hours are diffuse: soft light effectively runs the whole day on most days, with no access rule that can exclude you from it. Shallow solar path means the low sun window at each end runs 1.5 to 2 hours rather than 40 minutes, plus long twilight. The cost: overcast at 57N is dim. Expect f/2.8 to f/4 and ISO 6400 plus to reach 1/2000, so frozen wings in natural light are not realistically available. Plan for wing blur or perched birds.
Weather risk: Rainy season, Fog / mist (asset) and High wind
Atmosphere: Coastal fog and low cloud sitting in the Tongass, rain beading on salmonberry blossom, drizzle backlit when a low sun finds a gap, sea fog off the Sound. Wet foliage saturates the dark greens the rufous body colour sits against. Precipitation is lowest in June (3.4in) if you want the odds tilted drier.
Permits: Tongass National Forest, general access open, no photography permit. Drones prohibited in designated wilderness. Standard nesting care: females nest low in conifers and shrubs, typically under 5m, so do not work a nest.
Getting there: Alaska Airlines jet service to Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan from Seattle; no road in, so fly or take the Alaska Marine Highway ferry. Rental car essential, productive forest edges are roadside. Stay at the forest edge rather than in town. Physically easy. Rain gear and lens covers are not optional.

Who runs trips here: No photography specific hummingbird operator exists for southeast Alaska. Do it yourself window, which is part of why the pictures do not exist yet. Worth emailing before booking: Sitka Sound Science Center, and the Alaska HumTrack project (Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center with Todd Eskelin and Banding Coalition of the Americas), which works Rufous on the southern Alaska breeding grounds and is the one route to a WPY eligible caption under the scientific research exemption.

Confidence: high · Last verified 20 Sept 2026

Rufous Hummingbird — Pacific Northwest and coastal BC — late March to early May

Shoot window

Rufous Hummingbird: you will probably see it (Mar–May)

Rufous Hummingbird by month
Month	Presence
Jan	Outside the window
Feb	Outside the window
Mar	In season
Apr	Peak
May	Peak
Jun	Outside the window
Jul	Outside the window
Aug	Outside the window
Sep	Outside the window
Oct	Outside the window
Nov	Outside the window
Dec	Outside the window

Peak: Spring peak in Oregon and Washington is typically around the first week of April. Coastal Washington and Oregon fill through late April and May. Males arrive ahead of females.
Days needed: 6 days
Behaviour: Migration / passage, Courtship / display, Territorial fighting
Coat: Breeding plumage
Habitat: Green season / lush, Wetland / water
Crowds: Moderate
Also here: Anna's hummingbird, resident and more willing to sit still, which makes it the better practice subject; varied thrush, band tailed pigeon, harlequin duck, river otter, coastal spring wildflowers.

Light: 47 to 50N. Early April max solar altitude around 48 deg, early May around 57 deg. Pacific Northwest spring is reliably overcast, delivering the same all day soft light asset as southeast Alaska at a fraction of the travel cost. Dimmer than Colorado, slightly brighter than Sitka in May. Same shutter speed problem as Alaska, just less severe: plan for wing blur or perched birds.
Weather risk: Rainy season, Fog / mist (asset) and High wind
Atmosphere: Rain on blossom, coastal and valley mist, dripping second growth forest, the occasional low sun break through a squall.
Permits: General access. The real restriction is compositional, not legal: watch for cultivated garden plantings in frame, which disqualify for both WPY (cultivated plants) and GDT (cultivated forms of wild plants). Stay on wild salmonberry and currant.
Getting there: Cheapest and easiest window by a wide margin. Drive out from Seattle or Vancouver. No charters, no permits, no altitude.

Who runs trips here: None needed. Self directed.

Confidence: medium · Last verified 20 Sept 2026

Rufous Hummingbird — Crested Butte subalpine meadows — late July to mid August

Shoot window

Rufous Hummingbird: about an even chance of seeing it (Jul–Aug)

Rufous Hummingbird by month
Month	Presence
Jan	Outside the window
Feb	Outside the window
Mar	Outside the window
Apr	Outside the window
May	Outside the window
Jun	Outside the window
Jul	Peak
Aug	Peak
Sep	Outside the window
Oct	Outside the window
Nov	Outside the window
Dec	Outside the window

Peak: Last week of July to second week of August, where the southbound passage through the Rockies overlaps the high elevation bloom. 2026 note: low snowpack ran the bloom one to two weeks early at lower elevations, so check current conditions rather than trusting the calendar.
Days needed: 8 days
Behaviour: Migration / passage, Territorial fighting
Coat: Juveniles present
Habitat: Green season / lush
Crowds: Moderate
Also here: Broad tailed and calliope hummingbird on the same flowers, marmot, pika, mule deer, elk, moose in the willow bottoms, and the meadows themselves as a subject.

Light: 38.9N at 2700 to 3400m. Late July max solar altitude around 70 deg, so midday is written off on any clear day. Golden hour runs 40 to 50 minutes at each end. The saving grace is the Colorado monsoon: July and August afternoons build cumulus that both softens the light and supplies storm skies. Altitude means very high contrast and hard blue shadows when clear. Realistic soft light budget: 1.5h dawn, 1.5h dusk, plus a variable afternoon of cloud. Crucially this is brighter than Alaska, so 1/2000 at ISO 1600 to 3200 is achievable inside the low sun window. Best of all the windows for a sharp hovering frame in natural light.
Weather risk: Rainy season, Wildfire smoke and High wind
Atmosphere: Monsoon storm architecture behind the meadows, rim light through translucent wings at low sun, light shafts through cloud gaps, occasional morning valley mist off the Slate River.
Permits: National forest, general access, no photography permit. Drone restricted in wilderness areas including Maroon Bells Snowmass. Crested Butte Wildflower Festival runs mid July (10 to 19 July in 2026) and puts guided groups and photography workshops on the popular trails; the target window sits just after it.
Getting there: Fly Denver, or Gunnison (GUC) seasonally. Two to four hours drive from Denver. Gothic Road and Washington Gulch Road drivable in a normal car; Rustler's Gulch needs high clearance. Base in Crested Butte. Altitude 2700m plus, allow a day to acclimatise.

Who runs trips here: No dedicated Rufous operator. RMBL at Gothic (rmbl.org) runs long term pollinator and hummingbird research on these meadows. Worth writing ahead about access, and about whether any fieldwork could support a WPY scientific research caption.

Confidence: medium · Last verified 20 Sept 2026

Rufous Hummingbird — SE Arizona sky islands — late July to early September

Shoot window

Ramsey Canyon Preserve

Rufous Hummingbird: you will almost certainly see it (Jul–Sep)

Rufous Hummingbird by month
Month	Presence
Jan	Outside the window
Feb	Outside the window
Mar	Outside the window
Apr	Outside the window
May	Outside the window
Jun	Outside the window
Jul	Peak
Aug	Peak
Sep	Peak
Oct	Outside the window
Nov	Outside the window
Dec	Outside the window

Peak: Last week of July to second week of August for adult males. By mid August most adult males have already passed through and the birds are females and immatures. Overall numbers peak early to mid August. Rufous is common here late July to September and only uncommon in spring.
Days needed: 6 days
Behaviour: Migration / passage, Territorial fighting, Mass aggregation
Coat: Breeding plumage
Habitat: Dry season / dust, Green season / lush
Crowds: Moderate
Also here: Twelve to fourteen hummingbird species including Rivoli's, blue throated mountain gem, violet crowned, broad billed, white eared, berylline and the occasional Plain capped starthroat. Also elegant trogon, Arizona woodpecker, painted redstart, Mexican jay, sulphur bellied flycatcher, and monsoon lightning as a subject in its own right.

Light: 31.7N at 1200 to 1600m. Mid August max solar altitude around 74 deg, the worst sun angle in this file: it climbs fast and golden hour is 35 to 40 minutes. Average cloud cover peaks near 48 percent in the monsoon against 83 percent clear in the dry months, so August genuinely helps but this is not an all day soft light location. Afternoon buildup typically arrives around 16:00. One real asset the sun angle hides: these canyons are deep, and north and east facing walls hold shade well past sunrise and again before sunset, which stretches the usable window. Write off 09:00 to 15:30 on any day the storm does not build. Brightest of all the windows, so 1/3200 natural light is easy, but the light that gives you that is exactly the light you do not shoot in.
Weather risk: Extreme heat, Heat haze (kills long lens), Rainy season and High wind
Atmosphere: Monsoon storm skies and lightning, rain on agave and penstemon, steam off canyon rock after a storm, backlit dust ahead of the rain.
Permits: Ramsey Canyon Preserve is Nature Conservancy with an entry fee and set opening hours, the classic access failure: the gate may not be open for first light, so confirm current hours before relying on it. Ash Canyon and Beatty's charge small fees. Monsoon roads flood, never cross a running wash. Forest Service land otherwise open.
Getting there: Fly Tucson. One hour to Madera Canyon, ninety minutes to Sierra Vista and the Huachucas, three hours to Portal. Self drive throughout, normal car fine. Physically undemanding.

Who runs trips here: Santa Rita Lodge in Madera Canyon is the useful booking because staying on site solves the first light problem entirely. Beatty's Guest Ranch in Miller Canyon holds the US day record for hummingbird species. Tom Bol runs July hummingbird in flight workshops in Madera Canyon, but those are multi flash feeder setups, the exact thing to avoid here.

Confidence: high · Last verified 20 Sept 2026

Rufous Hummingbird — US Gulf Coast wintering yards — November to February (avoid)

Shoot window

Suburban yards and banding stations in south Louisiana, southeast Texas, coastal Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida panhandle. Long running banding operations around New Orleans, Foley AL and Tallahassee FL., United States of America

Rufous Hummingbird: you will probably see it (Nov–Feb)

Rufous Hummingbird by month
Month	Presence
Jan	In season
Feb	Peak
Mar	Outside the window
Apr	Outside the window
May	Outside the window
Jun	Outside the window
Jul	Outside the window
Aug	Outside the window
Sep	Outside the window
Oct	Outside the window
Nov	Peak
Dec	Peak

Peak: Winter residents are first detected in November or December, six weeks or more after Rufous have left the western states, and stay to late February.
Coat: Juveniles present
Crowds: Quiet
Also here: Whatever else visits the yard, which is exactly the point.

Light: 29 to 31N in winter, and the light is genuinely the best of any window here: max solar altitude around 37 deg at the solstice, long soft ends to the day, frequent Gulf overcast and morning fog. The light is not the problem with this window.
Weather risk: Fog / mist (asset)
Permits: DOCUMENTED REASON TO AVOID. The birds are real, reliable and in many cases individually known, with banded individuals returning to the same feeder four years running, so sighting odds are excellent. Everything else is wrong. They are in suburban backyards at sugar water feeders among cultivated garden plants, and the winterers are overwhelmingly females and immatures, so there is no adult male gorget to work with. That fails WPY on two separate clauses (baiting including feeders, and cultivated plants) and fails GDT on cultivated forms of wild plants. There is no habitat to put behind the bird and no behaviour beyond feeding. Outstanding for banding science, worthless for a portfolio frame. Do not research this window again.
Getting there: Trivial and cheap, which is not a reason to go.

Who runs trips here: Hummingbird Research Inc (Fred Bassett) and the Louisiana banding network are the contacts if the interest ever becomes documenting the research rather than photographing the bird, which is the only route that would make an image from here eligible anywhere.

Confidence: high · Last verified 20 Sept 2026

Rufous Hummingbird — SE Arizona pre monsoon — mid May to mid June (avoid)

Shoot window

Same sky island canyons as the August window: Madera, Ramsey, Miller, Ash, Cave Creek., United States of America

Rufous Hummingbird: you might see it, but it is far from sure (May–Jun)

Rufous Hummingbird by month
Month	Presence
Jan	Outside the window
Feb	Outside the window
Mar	Outside the window
Apr	Outside the window
May	In season
Jun	In season
Jul	Outside the window
Aug	Outside the window
Sep	Outside the window
Oct	Outside the window
Nov	Outside the window
Dec	Outside the window

Peak: None. This is the gap between the two legs of the migration loop.
Coat: Not applicable
Habitat: Dry season / dust
Crowds: Quiet
Also here: Resident hummingbird species are present and breeding and elegant trogon is on territory, so a June trip here is not empty, it is just not a Rufous trip. If the trip has to happen then for other reasons, treat Rufous as absent rather than as a long shot.

Light: 31.7N. Max solar altitude around 80 deg at the solstice, the highest number in this file, in the clearest part of the year at roughly 83 percent clear sky. Sierra Vista June average high 33C. Golden hour is 35 minutes, twice a day, and heat haze closes the long lens well before the light goes hard. A two week trip here contains under ten hours of shootable light.
Weather risk: Extreme heat and Heat haze (kills long lens)
Permits: DOCUMENTED REASON TO AVOID. Two independent failures pointing the same way. First the bird: Rufous is only an uncommon spring migrant in southeast Arizona and only in March and April, becoming common again from late July. Mid May to mid June is the hole between the two passages, when the birds are on the Pacific Northwest and Alaska breeding grounds. Second the light: this is the clearest, hottest, highest sun period of the year in precisely the place where those three conditions do the most damage to long lens work. Absent subject plus worst possible light. Do not research this window again.

Confidence: high · Last verified 20 Sept 2026

Hides, lodges and tours for the Rufous Hummingbird

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Where it lives

Show the Rufous Hummingbird range on the globe

Species

IUCN status: Unknown
Regions: North America
Range on the globe: No range polygons yet

GBIF taxon 2476855