Ruby-throated Hummingbird Migration Phenology Across North America, 1880–2024

Sydney Pierce and Terra Swartz compiled this dataset to analyze long-term changes in Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration timing. It integrates historical observations from the North American Bird Phenology Program (1880–1969) with recent citizen-science data from eBird (2006–2024) and Journey North (2001–2024). The dataset includes temperature data from the Climatic Research Unit Time-Series to evaluate associations between migration timing and climate trends.

Use Cases

• Modeling shifts in spring arrival dates based on latitude and temperature data.
• Analyzing delays in autumn departure dates across different data sources.
• Evaluating long-term climate change impacts on bird migration phenology over more than a century.
• Comparing historical and contemporary citizen-science observation datasets for a single species.

Strengths

• Integrates data from three distinct sources spanning over 140 years (1880–2024).
• Includes associated temperature data from the Climatic Research Unit Time-Series dataset.
• Provides R Markdown workflows for reproducible analysis of first arrival and last departure dates.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic or source bias inherent to the contributing citizen-science platforms.

Provenance

Source

North American Bird Phenology Program, eBird, Journey North, Climatic Research Unit Time-Series.

Collection Method

Integration of historical archival records and contemporary citizen-science observations.

Time Range

1880–2024

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 19:13:15; freshness should be verified.

Geography

North America