Making a Hummingbird Friendly Garden
07.February, 2010
Hummingbirds are found throughout the Americas including the Caribbean. Well-known for their hovering ability and their unique ability to fly backwards, hummingbirds can hover by rapidly flapping their wings at high speeds up to 80 times a second.
The smallest bird in the world is the Bee Hummingbird at only 1.8 grams in weight and two inches long. The largest hummingbird is the Giant Hummingbird at twenty four grams in weight and eight inches long. They have the highest metabolism of all birds and to sustain this they have to eat more than their own weight in food daily. So that they can do this they have to visit five hundred or more flowers each day to collect the nectar. They possess long tongues and beaks which allows them to reach right into flowers. They are able to slow down their metabolisms when at rest, unlike nearly all other high metabolism animals. This lengthens their natural life, which has been reported as long as seventeen years.
How to Make A Hummingbird Friendly Garden
To draw hummingbirds to your garden you could plant brilliantly colored flowers and shrubs. Hummingbirds have very little sense of smell but they are attracted to intense colours. Hanging a a speciality hummingbird feeder in your backyard or on your deck will catch the attention of these charming birds. Plant annuals include petunia, salvia, beard tongue, jacobinia, firespike and impatiens. Some perennial plants include bee balm, costa, yucca, canna, lupine, cardinal flower and foxglove. For bushes and trees plant azalea, buddleia, cape honeysuckle, mimosa, weigela, flame acanthus, lantana, red buckeye and tree tobacco.
Don’t use pesticides in your garden as this will eradicate insects and bugs that hummingbirds eat. They also leave deposits on the flowers which the hummingbirds may consume. Also provide lots of perching places as they spend in the region of 80% of the time resting on clothes lines, twigs etc. Supply plants that will provide materials for nesting to catch the attention of the females. They prefer feathery nesting material from trees such as eucalyptus and willow and from ferns, mosses and lichens.
Hanging up brightly colored, speciality feeders in your backyard will attract the hummingbirds. An excellent suggestion is to fix red streamers that will blow around the feeder. It’s also a good idea to provide feeders at different heights as hummingbird species all have distinctive preferences. Species that prefer plants that are low growing will go to a feeder sited lower whilst species that feed on taller shrubs and plants will choose to go to a feeder positioned higher. Hummingbirds are also extremely territorial and one hummingbird could defend a particular feeder and prevent others from feeding. Place no less than three feeders at various heights all around your backyard.
Hummingbirds enjoy bathing in the mist on plants so you could set a mister near to some broadleaved vegetation to give them a bathing place.
Making Hummingbird Nectar
Make a sweet nectar by blending together a measure of sugar with 4 cups of pre-boiled water. Cool down then keep in the refrigerator. Nectar that is unused can be stored safely for up to seven days. Thoroughly wash hummingbird feeders every week by rinsing with a mixture of 1 cup of vinegar in 4 cups of water and then washing out with clean water. Re-fill with the sugar solution and hang in the shade. Do not add food colouring or synthetic sweeteners. Also do not use honey as it will ferment and be the source of a a poisonous fungus. Replace the nectar solution in the feeder every three days or more often in hot, summer weather.
In Conclusion
It is easy to make a garden to attract these lovely birds. Give them the food they love and a safe environment and hummingbirds will come to your garden frequently.
See more about feeding wild birds and some cheap bird feeders to buy at Garden Bird Feeders or Garden Garden Bird Feeders UK
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