Attracting Hummingbirds to Your Garden

What a treat it is to watch a hummingbird fly up to one of your blossoms and hover before it takes a sip. They are amazing, colorful, little creatures with motors that enable them to tread air. There are several things you can do to attract more of these wonderful birds to your garden.

The first thing you can do is to keep planting native flowering plants in your garden as much as possible. Select nectar-producing plants that are native to your region because some cultivated hybrids produce less nectar than their wild counterparts. Keep in mind that hummingbirds are attracted to flower colors and nectar, not fragrance.

The list of favorite hummingbird plants, both native and non-native, is extensive. Just to mention a few here: favorite perennials for hummingbirds are bee balm, columbine, hollyhock and cosmos. A few annuals are nasturtium, petunia, and zinnia. Some vines with flowers hummingbirds are attracted to include honeysuckle, rosary vine, trumpet creeper, and cardinal climber. Among the shrubs are lilac, butterfly bush, azalea, hibiscus, and weigela. While attracting hummingbirds to your garden with these plants you will also be attracting butterflies as well, a pleasurable side benefit.

The next rather obvious way to attract hummingbirds is to set out feeders. Set out as many as you know you will maintain. There are dozens of styles of hummingbird feeders on the market today. When choosing the models for your garden, remember hummingbirds like clean and filled feeders, so pick ones that are easy for you to use and clean. The most attractive color to hummingbirds is red so look for red in the feeder itself. Avoid yellow because bees and wasps are attracted to this color. Two precautions for the feeder’s solution are to never use one with red dye and never use a honey water solution in them. Both are toxic and deadly to hummingbirds. Plain white table sugar dissolved in water in a four-to-one solution is about as close to real flower nectar as you can get for the feeder’s solution.

Another tip for the feeders is to only fill them with enough sugar solution to last, at the most, two or three days. Feeders should be emptied and cleaned as soon as the sugar solution starts to appear cloudy.

Make certain that there is always fresh water available for drinking as well as for bathing. Hummingbirds like to bathe just as much as any other bird, but prefer water dripping off of leaves or spray coming from sprinklers and pond fountains. Hummingbirds like both the sun and shade areas in your garden. The sunny areas are usually where they feed while the shaded areas provide places to perch as well as to build their tiny nests. Willows and eucalyptus trees are used for nesting materials along with bits of leaves, spider webs, moss, and lichens.

Follow these simple suggestions and watch for these magical little birds to appear and enjoy your garden.

Dayelle Swensson is an avid writer for the web on a number of topics. Having gardened herself for many years, she is able to advise others about a variety of things including gardening tips, lawn and tree care, watering, hose reel and keeping your home garden looking attractive and healthy.