Hobbies And Pastimes

Many people consider hummingbirds to be the most interesting of all backyard birds. They are fun to watch as they fly around looking for food and water. It is amazing how fast they can fly and how quickly they can change direction then stop and hover. If you want to make hummers regular visitors to your yard just add a food source.

You can bring even more hummingbirds in to your yard by planting ‘natural’ sources of hummingbird food in your landscaping in addition to hanging hummingbird feeders. Natural sources of hummingbird nectar may be as easy to maintain as the bird feeders you hang up! Besides providing nourishment to the birds, your yard will become a treasure to look at since hummingbirds prefer some of the prettiest and most colorful species of flowers.

Natural Hummingbird Food

Hummingbird nectar is sipped from flowers, usually red ones. Petunias, fuchsia, red columbine , trumpet vine and red bee balm are just a few plants that will attract your winged friends. The plants simply need sun and water to grow and the birds will find them on their own. Tiny flying insects are another natural food source for hummingbirds.

“Artificial” Hummingbird Food

You don’t need a large yard to attract hummingbirds, in fact you don’t need a yard at all. Whether you live in a condo, an apartment or in the city you can attract hummingbirds. Hanging flower baskets will attract hummingbirds and they don’t require a lot of space. You can also use hummingbird feeders in small spaces. They are available in many sizes and shapes. You can hang them from windowsills, under your eaves or even attach them to a window.

Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red so hummingbird feeders with red coloring attract more hummingbirds. Hummingbird feeders come in many shapes but the shape is not really important to hummingbirds. The nectar inside is what the hummers are looking for.

Hummingbird Bird Feeders

There are two styles of hummingbird feeders - dish and bottle. The bottle style feeder is typically an upside down plastic or glass bottle with a feeding tube coming out the bottom. The end of the feeding tube often has a plastic red flower to attract hummingbirds. Some also include bee-guards to keep flying insects off the feeding port. You should hang your bottle feeder in the shade when possible. If the sugar solution heats up it expands. This expansion may cause the feeder to leak from the feeding port.

The dish hummingbird feeder is normally made of plastic although some very beautiful ones are made from blown glass. A dish style feeder is in essence a covered dish with feeding ports built into the cover. The feeding ports in the top make them less appealing to bees and wasps. Several dish feeders are now designed with a storage bottle to distribute the sugar solution from above. Since the hummingbirds may not be able to eat all of the solution, this style feeder should be cleaned and re-filled more often. I prefer this style of feeder for feeding hummingbirds.

Hummingbird Food Recipe

Making nectar for feeding hummingbirds is simple. The traditional recipe calls for 4 parts of water to one part sugar. You can adjust the batch size to fit your feeder needs as long as you maintain the 4 to 1 ratio. If you go through a lot of nectar and have a large number of feeders to fill daily, you can mix 4 gallons of water with one gallon of white sugar. For small feeders, mix 4 cups of water with one cup of sugar.

Boiling the water before adding the sugar will help the mixture blend thoroughly. You can also just stir the sugar into cool water but it will take longer to blend. Do not add red food dye to the mixture, it may be harmful to the hummers that eat it. If you have a problem attracting hummingbirds just tie a few strips of red cloth the feeder. The color and movement should draw them to your feeder. If you make extra nectar just store it in the refrigerator until you need it. The mixture will keep for a few weeks if kept cold.

You can feed hummingbirds from early spring until late fall. Feeding hummingbirds in the fall will not delay their migration. In fact the extra nourishment will help them in their long journey south.

Hummingbirds will return to feeding sources year after year. So once you start feeding hummingbirds they will likely return to your hummingbird feeders for years to come.