Humans are helping the robin’s beautiful cousin, once a rare sight, make an astounding comeback.

In one of the most astounding feats in the natural world, tiny songbirds travel thousands of miles on migration, sometimes finishing up at the same tree they left last spring.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds—among the feistiest birds around—have returned. They winged out of Central America about two weeks before they began appearing in backyards in early May. First to arrive were males, racing to claim a territory and get ready for females, who arrive a couple of weeks later. They battle and squabble with each other and anything else—you, the family dog or other birds—that strays into their feeding territories.