How to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Yard

Love hummingbirds? Want to attract more hummingbirds to your yard? Here are some simple tips to use your garden to attract hummingbirds.

We love sitting outside in our backyard, and watching the wildlife. It is one of my favorite times. Even if I have to work or the kids are reading a book, just being together outside, enjoying nature, no matter if we are doing our own thing.

We make sure to have plants and flowers that attract birds, bees and hummingbirds. We love hummingbirds. Last year we were lucky enough to have two hummingbirds that spent a lot of time in our backyard. This year we want more. This is how to attract hummingbirds to your yard.

How to Attract Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are small birds that are native to tropical regions of the United States. They are colorful, musical, and drawn to nectar as well as a variety of different flowers and plants. If you want to get more hummingbirds in your yard, the following tips will help.

Do hummingbirds return to the same place every year?

Hummingbirds have been known to return to the same places year after year, usually to the place where it was born. Some hummingbirds have been seen returning to the same feeders year after year.

How do you get hummingbirds to come to your feeder?

In order to get hummingbirds to come to your feeder and your yard, you must have a healthy yard. Do not use pesticides in the yard. Make sure you are growing honeysuckle and other plants and flowers that hummingbirds and other pollinating insects like. However, make sure they are native plants. If you are still having trouble getting hummingbirds to your yard, try hanging a basket with overripe fruit and banana peels close to the hummingbird feeders as this will attract fruit flies.

How to Attract Hummingbirds to my balcony?

What time of year do you put out hummingbird feeders?

When putting out hummingbird feeders, you want to place them 5-10 days before the hummingbirds come to the area. This helps the hummingbirds to find the feeders and tempt them into staying for the season. In March and April, hummingbirds are found in the central United States. The birds have flown a long distance by this time and will appreciate the feeders.

Add Homemade Nectar to a Hummingbird Feeder

When hanging your hummingbird feeders, it is best to fill them with homemade nectar. While you can buy it from the store, homemade recipes are more desirable. Some have said that homemade nectar brings more hummingbirds to their yards. Making homemade nectar is truly easy.

Use four parts water and one part sugar.
Boil the water and sugar for a couple of minutes, then let it cool.
Once cool, add it to a container and gradually pour some into the feeder.

It is very important to never use artificial sweeteners, organic sugar, raw, turbinado or brown sugar when making nectar.

No Red Dye

There is no reason to add food coloring to your hummingbird feeders. It has been shown that clear nectar in brightly colored feeders will attract hummingbirds better than colored nectar.

According to Bird Watcher’s Digest, Red Dye #40 which is often used in commercial nectars is proven to cause cancer and tumors in rats and has been shown to cause reproduction rates to decrease. No tests on hummingbirds have been done, but some evidence is seen that there is an increase in bill and skin tumors on birds who have had a steady diet of red colored nectar.

What is a hummingbird’s favorite flower?

Hummingbirds like brightly colored flowers that are tubular in shape. These flowers hold the most nectar. Hummingbirds are known to enjoy bee balms, daylilies, columbines, foxgloves, impatiens, and petunias.

Plants that Attract Hummingbirds

Aside from providing homemade nectar in a feeder, the next best thing is to plant a hummingbird-friendly garden. This includes choosing a variety of flowers, plants, trees, and shrubs that hummingbirds tend to be attracted to.

What Flowers Attract Hummingbirds

Some perennial flowers that would be good for hummingbirds are foxglove, bee balm, cardinal flowers, and coral bells. Some annuals that you might want to plant are the petunia, fuchsia, jewelweed, and firespike. Plants and shrubs to put in your garden to attract hummingbirds are butterfly bush, azalea, cape honeysuckle, mimosa, and red buckeye. Vines to plant for hummingbirds are the morning glory, coral honeysuckle, cypress vine, and trumpet creeper.

Keep Only Fresh Blooms Out

A popular way to encourage hummingbirds to visit your yard is by deadheading. This means you remove old blossoms and keep only fresh ones. Keep an eye on your different flowers and bushes, and remove blooms as soon as they have started to wilt. By doing this, you ensure the other blooms continue flourishing and have a proper amount of nectar for the birds. Hummingbirds much prefer yards with multiple sources of nectar. The plant is going to start producing more seedheads and blooms than it would have otherwise.

Remember to take good care of these plants that attract hummingbirds, and keep filling the hummingbird feeder with plenty of nectar. Place the feeder near the back of the yard so the birds don’t get frightened by humans. Attracting hummingbirds to your yard with these methods will allow you to explore more of nature in the comfort of your own yard.

More Gardening Articles you Might Enjoy: