Hummingbirds can be found throughout North and South America and the Caribbean. Recognized for their ability to hover and their skill at flying backwards, hummingbirds hover by continuously flapping their wings up to 85 times a second.

The Bee Hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world at just 1.8 grams in weight and two inches long. The Giant Hummingbird is the largest hummingbird at twenty four grams in weight and eight inches long. Hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism of any birds and to maintain this they must eat their own weight and more in food daily. To do this they must visit five hundred or more blooms a day to harvest the nectar. They possess long tongues and beaks which allows them to reach right into flowers. They are able to reduce their metabolisms when resting, unlike most other animals with a high metabolisms. This extends their natural life, which may be up to 18 years.

How to Make A Garden Friendly to the Hummingbirds

To attract hummingbirds to your garden plant brilliantly coloured shrubs and flowers. Hummingbirds have very little sense of smell but they are drawn to brilliant colours. Placing a hummingbird feeder in your garden or on your deck will be a focus for these pretty birds. Plant annuals include jacobinia, salvia, beard tongue, jewelweed, impatiens and petunia. Perennials you could plant include hummingbird mint, canna, columbine, lupine, hota, yucca and bee balm. For bushes and trees choose buddleia, lantana, tree tobacco, mimosa, flame acanthus and azalea.

Don’t use any pesticides in your garden as you will eradicate bugs and insects that hummingbirds eat. They will also leave deposits on the flowers which the hummingbirds could swallow. Also supply a lot of roosting places as they spend approximately eighty percent of the time perching on clothes lines, twigs etc. Make available plants that will supply nesting materials to be a focus for the females. They prefer feathery nesting material from trees such as eucalyptus and willow and from lichens and mosses.

Hanging up brightly coloured, specially made hummingbird feeders in your garden will be a focus for the hummingbirds. An excellent plan is to attach red streamers that blow all around the feeder. It’s also helpful to supply feeders at assorted heights as hummingbird species all have different preferences. Species that favor plants that are low growing will visit a feeder placed lower while species that feed on taller shrubs and plants will rather visit a feeder located higher. Hummingbirds are also very territorial and an individual hummingbird could defend a single feeder and stop others from feeding. Space no less than 3 feeders at various heights all around your backyard.

Hummingbirds enjoy bathing in the mist on plants so you might put a mister near to some broadleaved vegetation to give them a bathing place.

Making Hummingbird Nectar

Make a sweet nectar by mixing together one cup of sugar and 4 cups of pre-boiled water. Allow the mixture to cool and keep in the fridge. Unused nectar can be stored safely for approximately seven days. Scrupulously clean hummingbird feeders weekly by rinsing with a mixture of one cup of vinegar to four cups of water then rinsing with plain water. Re-fill with the sugar solution and suspend in a shady place. Don’t use food coloring or sweeteners. Also don’t use honey as it can ferment and be the source of a a poisonous fungus. Change the nectar in the feeder every three days or more often when the weather is hotter.

In Conclusion

It is not hard to make a garden to attract these lovely birds. Provide them with the food they love and a comfortable setting and hummingbirds will come to your garden regularly.

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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