Hummingbirds of Rhode Island

Norman Bird Sanctuary is a 300-acre nonprofit wildlife sanctuary and environmental education center in Middletown, Rhode Island, just 4 miles from Newport. Set in the heart of historic Paradise Valley between Second and Third Beaches, the sanctuary offers 6 miles of hiking trails through diverse coastal habitats. The sanctuary is actively creating what will be the largest pollinator meadow habitat in Rhode Island by seeding the Coastal Field with New England aster, bee balm, goldenrod, Rudbeckia, and more. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are documented in the pollinator meadow restoration and noted by staff as a key target pollinator.

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The Roger Williams Park Botanical Center is New England's largest glasshouse display garden, operated by the City of Providence within the historic 435-acre Roger Williams Park. The outdoor Botanical Center features a Native Plant Meadow, perennial gardens, a rose maze, a rain garden, and a woodland hillside garden with seasonal bee balm, coneflower, and phlox plantings that create outstanding hummingbird habitat in summer. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds visit the outdoor Native Plant Meadow and perennial gardens from late May through early September.

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Blithewold is a 33-acre summer estate on Bristol Harbor with sweeping views of Narragansett Bay, nationally recognized as one of the most fully developed and authentic surviving examples of the Country Place Era of American garden design. The property features a 45-room mansion, formal gardens, an arboretum with over 300 species of woody plants — including what may be the largest Giant Sequoia on the East Coast — and a series of distinctive garden rooms. Blithewold's staff blog specifically documents Ruby-throated Hummingbirds "tanking up" on the tender perennial salvias in preparation for fall migration.

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Sachuest Point National Wildlife Refuge is a 242-acre coastal peninsula refuge managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, located between Second Beach and Third Beach in Middletown. The refuge features a 3-mile loop trail through coastal shrub thicket, grasslands, and rocky shoreline that provides exceptional habitat for migrating and breeding birds. The coastal shrub thickets create a concentration point for southbound Ruby-throated Hummingbirds staging along the coast before crossing open water — one of the best fall migration sites in Rhode Island.

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