At the end of April, the questions started coming: Where are the hummingbirds? Has anyone seen a hummingbird yet?

On May 1, those social media posts transitioned into reports of sightings — from Milbridge, Rockport, South Hiram, Steep Falls.

Since then, Mainers have been sharing photos and videos, some from cameras on feeders connected to apps that send alerts whenever a bird stops by to stick its needle-like beak into holes filled with sugar water.

While red hummingbird feeders long have been fixtures of Maine yards and decks (especially at camp), technology has taken a once-passive hobby and put it into hyperdrive, enabling birders to keep better track of avian visitors and share their excitement with fellow enthusiasts online.

Although many species of migratory birds show up in Maine this time of year, there seems to be heightened anticipation around ruby-throated hummingbirds, which travel from as far away as Central America to destinations throughout the eastern U.S. and up into Canada. Males arrive here first to establish territories, starting in late April or early May.

With popular species, birders often vie for the bragging rights of being the first to spot them in the spring, said Allison Wells, senior director of communications for the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Between online databases like eBird and Facebook pages dedicated to the subject, anyone can participate in this annual competition.

Wells, who co-wrote “Maine’s Favorite Birds” with her husband, puts hummingbirds among the state’s top five most beloved, right alongside the common loon and bald eagle. She credits their many unique attributes, including the blurring wing speed that makes them appear to defy gravity (with its namesake hum), their ability to fly backwards and their iridescent green and red plumage.

They also allow humans to get rather close to them when they’re feeding, Wells said, which some people find endearing.

Robin Henderson, who has dozens of bird feeders in his yard in Standish and posts pictures of all sorts of wildlife to various social media pages, said he’s noticed something else unique about hummingbirds.

“It’s hard for people to say anything negative about them,” he said, which isn’t the case with other animals he posts about online.

Kathleen Cutler of Pittston gets it. She just recently got on board with the hummingbird craze.

Cutler and her husband moved into her late father-in-law’s house a couple years ago and, last spring, noticed two hummingbirds were hanging around the deck. Her husband said his father had fed them, and Cutler felt like she should carry on the practice.

“I was fascinated with the fact that they remembered to come back to the same place,” she said.

She got two feeders that first year and has had as many as six hummingbirds hovering around them at a time. Her son and daughter-in-law bought her one with a camera to add to the mix this year.

“I have two different apps on my phone,” she said. “I’m that person now.”

Cutler posted her first-ever video to the Maine Wildlife Facebook page on May 4, after capturing her first visitor of the season.

She said the connection to nature gives her hope in a world where hope is not always abundant. No matter what’s happening in her day, when she gets an alert on her phone that a hummingbird has arrived at the feeder, she said, “it calms me down and makes me happy.”