How to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden
Hummingbirds are found all over the Americas including the Caribbean. Famous for their ability to hover and their unique ability to fly backwards, hummingbirds hover by flapping their wings at speeds as fast as 80 times a second.
The Bee Hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world at just two inches long and weighing around 2 grams. The largest hummingbird is the Giant Hummingbird at 24 grams and approximately 8 inches long. They have the fastest metabolism of any birds and to keep going they need to consume in excess of their own weight in food daily. To do this they must visit five hundred or more flowers daily to collect the nectar. They possess long tongues and beaks to reach deep into the flowers. They are able to reduce their metabolisms when at rest, unlike nearly all other animals with a high metabolisms. This extends their natural life, which can be as long as 18 years.
Planting A Garden Friendly to the Hummingbirds
To draw hummingbirds to your garden you could plant brilliantly coloured bushes and flowers. Hummingbirds have very little sense of smell but they are drawn to brilliant colours. Placing a feeder specially made for humming birds in your backyard or on your terrace will catch the attention of these pretty birds. Plant annuals include petunia, salvia, beard tongue, jacobinia, firespike and impatiens. Perennials you could plant include hosta, hummingbird mint, cardinal flower, canna, bee balm and columbine. For shrubs and trees pick azalea, buddleia, cape honeysuckle, mimosa, weigela, flame acanthus, lantana, red buckeye and tree tobacco.
Don’t use any pesticides in your garden as this will destroy bugs and insects that hummingbirds eat. They also leave deposits on the flowers which the hummingbirds could swallow. Also supply lots of roosting places as hummingbirds will spend in the region of eighty percent of the time resting on clothes lines, branches etc. Supply plants that will provide nesting materials to be a focus for the females. Hummingbirds choose downy nesting material from trees such as eucalyptus and willow and from ferns, mosses and lichens.
Placing brightly colored, specially made hummingbird feeders in your backyard will exert a pull on the hummingbirds. An excellent plan is to fix red ribbons that blow around the feeder. It’s also a great idea to hang feeders at various heights as hummingbird species all have distinctive preferences. Species that favor plants that are low growing will visit a feeder sited lower while species that feed on taller shrubs and plants will choose to visit a feeder located in a higher position. Hummingbirds are also extremely territorial and a single hummingbird could defend a single feeder and prevent others from approaching. Space a minimum of 3 feeders at various heights around your garden.
Hummingbirds love to bathe in the mist on leaves so you might set a mister near to some broadleaved shrubbery to supply them with a bathing place.
A Method of Making Hummingbird Nectar
Make a sweet nectar by mixing together one measure of sugar and four cups of water that has been boiled. Allow the mixture to cool and store in the fridge. Unused nectar can be kept safely for about 7 days. Scrupulously clean hummingbird feeders once a week by rinsing with a solution of one cup of vinegar to four cups of water and then rinsing with plain water. Fill up with the nectar solution and hang in the shade. Don’t use any synthetic sweeteners or food colouring. Also don’t use honey as it will ferment and create a a poisonous fungus. Swap the nectar solution in the feeder every three days or oftener in hotter weather.
Conclusion
It is not hard to make a garden that will appeal to these attractive birds. Provide them with the food they love and a safe location and hummingbirds will visit your garden frequently.
More Information on feeding wild birds and some cheap bird feeders to buy at Garden Bird Feeders or Garden Garden Bird Feeders UK