|
Recent Articles:
How To Attract Hummingbirds
Yes! You can attract hummingbirds to your home. Even if you live in the middle of the city, and even if you've never had any...read more
Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds
Many individuals are fascinated by hummingbirds. So much so, that they will do anything in their power to...read more
A Garden To Attract Hummingbirds
“Mommy, come see! There are fairies in the garden!” And so they might have been to the eyes of a five year old who grew up...read more
Attracting and Caring for Hummingbirds
The oldest historical mention of hummingbirds likely dates back to the Taino Native Americans, who were reportedly the first...read more
How to Feed Hummingbirds by Hand
This is the technique I used to get our backyard hummingbirds to
eat from my hand.
1. Make a hand feeder by removing...read more
Bird Feeders: Look Who's Coming to Dinner
Birds, birds, birds. They come in all shapes and sizes. They range in type from carnivores to herbivores. Birds have been...read more
Hummingbird Migration
Specific humming bird migration patterns differ by species and habitats, but there are a few common points linking the...read more
Writing for hummingbirds - the essentials of drill down copy
Have you ever watched a hummingbird get breakfast? It darts
about staying but a few seconds on each perch...read more
|
|
Hummingbirdzone.com Featured Article:
A Garden To Attract Hummingbirds
John Sanderson
“Mommy, come see! There are fairies in the garden!”
And so they might have been to the eyes of a five year old who grew up on tales of pixies, elves and fairies. The magical visitor this time, though, was a ruby-throated hummingbird. Hummingbirds have a unique ability to hover in one place by rapidly fluttering their tiny wings which may truly have made them the ‘fairies’ that many people saw hovering around brightly colored flowers.
It’s not difficult to create a garden that will attract hummingbirds, but if you’d like to build a habitat in which they will happily nest and live throughout the northern summer, you need to provide them with more than a sugar-water feeder and a plant or two. An active hummingbird garden doesn’t need to be large, but it will have all of the following key ingredients to attract and keep the attention of nature’s fairies.
Choose nectar producing plants that bloom at different times throughout the spring, summer and autumn.
Flowers are, of course, the key ingredient in attracting hummingbirds to your garden. The tiny birds feed on nectar that is produced by flowers, and seem particularly attracted to plants with trumpet or tubular bright red and orange flowers. Among their particular favorites, though, are rhododendrons, azaleas and rose of Sharon bushes, so the red trumpet isn’t a hard and fast rule. For northern gardens that attract the ruby-throated hummingbird, choose from the list of plants below, making sure that you choose plants that flower at different times during the blooming season to provide food for them throughout the spring, summer and fall.
Spring Bloomers Azaleas, rhododendrons and rose of Sharon bushes make a great ‘background’ for hummingbird gardens. They bloom early in the spring and continue blooming through the early summer. Pink and bright red varieties are favored, but hummingbirds love ALL rose of Sharon varieties.
Summer Bloomers Bleeding hearts and red mountain columbine bloom in the early summer, as do petunias, morning glories, trumpet vines, trumpet honeysuckle, and impatiens, all of which attract hummingbirds. An expanse of shade-dappled impatiens is a powerful attraction for hummingbirds, who are ‘sight’ hunters, finding their feeding grounds by sight.
Click here to read the rest of this
article, as well as many others.
|