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Attracting Hummingbirds
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The following information will help you in attracting hummingbirds to feed and nest around your home.
Hummingbird Feeders
The easiest way of attracting these birds is to use a hummingbird feeder designed to attract these birds. Fill with a sugar water mixture. (1 part sugar to 4 parts water) Boil for 2 - 3 minutes, let cool and fill your feeder. This little recipe has been attracting them for a longtime.Hummingbirds can be very territorial when it comes to protecting food sources. By placing several hummingbird feeders around the yard, you can make it more
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| Watch Videos of Hummingbirds |
When using feeders, it sometimes helps to fasten a 12 inch strip of surveyor's tape to your feeder, this will help the birds to find your feeders faster. Red or Orange are the best color choices.
Providing feeders for attracting hummingbirds comes with its own concerns. Feeders must be kept clean. During the summers heat, the solution should be changed at least every other day. Otherwise, it will ferment or get moldy.
The feeder should be cleaned every week with a wash of vinegar and water. Using a bottle brush will aid the bird watcher in doing this job.
Never use honey in attracting hummingbirds. The use of honey can cause a fatal fungal infection on the birds' tongues. Most feeders are colored red and food coloring in the sugar water solution should not be used.
Place your feeders in an area where there are flowers that attract humming birds. If you have none, consider potting up a few flowerpots with annuals and place them under your feeders.
 Bird House for Hummers |
Discovering food sources by sight rather than smell. With this in mind, fragrance of flowers has little effect on whether hummingbirds will feed from them.
Nectar rich flowers will be more inticing to them.
The chart below shows a few nectar rich plants that will help in attracting hummingbirds. For more plant ideas, we recommend getting a copy of Attracting Butterflies & Hummingbirds to Your Backyard
Favorite Plants For Attracting Hummingbirds
| Annuals | Perennials | Vines | Shrubs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuchsia | Bee Balm | Coral Honeysuckle | Butterfly Bush |
| Impatients | Canna | Cypress Vine | Flowering Quince |
| Jacobiana | Cardinal Flower | Morning Glory | Lantana |
| Jewelweed | Coral Bells | Scarlet Runner | Manzanita |
| Petunia | Four O'Clocks | Trumpet Creeper | Mimosa |
| Salvia | Foxglove | Canary creeper | Red Buckey |
| Shrimp Plant | Hosta | Carolina jasmine | Tree Tobacco |
| Snapdragon | Lupine | Glory vine | Turks Cap |
| Nicotiana | Columbine | Cypress vine | Weigela |
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When gardening to attract hummingbirds, select a variety of
Avoid using pesticides around any flowers you select for these birds. Hummingbirds eat tiny insects as part of their diet and pesticide use can be fatal to the birds. You may want to provide nesting materials to encourage these birds to nest in your backyard. Downy like materials, spiderwebs, ferns, moss and lichens are the prefered nesting materials of the hummingbird. Willow and eucalyptus trees provide downy like materials as mentioned above. Water
You'll find that they love to fly through a light fountain spray. If you are not familiar with this type of birdbath be sure and visit Misters/Drippers and check a few of them out. If you follow these quidelines, your chances of attracting hummingbirds to your backyard is nearly guaranteed.
More Resources About Planting For Birds: Bird Gardening If you really love these birds, you'll enjoy the resources we've gathered for you. You can find them here Hummingbird Gifts, Ideas, and Products Habits of the Ruby-throated Humming Bird Ideas To Get and Keep Hummingbirds In Your Backyard
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