How To Create A Hummingbird Friendly Garden – Dian Farmer Learning To Grow Our Own Food

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Hummingbirds are colorful, little creatures. They are tiny, but mighty!

These birds are named for the sound that they make with their rapidly undulating wings. They‘ a‘re delightful to watch too!

Hummingbird flying and eating nectar — These colorful birds act as pollinators in the garden.

Hummingbirds are excellent for the garden as they help with pollination and pest control. Once you hear them flocking in your garden, you should start attracting more of them!

But the question is.. Why?

A lot of gardeners are wondering: How to attract birds to your garden?

Why Should You Start Attracting Hummingbirds?

They Are Natural Pollinators

Hummingbirds acquire their energy and nutrient requirements from the garden. Due to their fast heartbeats and breathing, and since most of their energy is spent on flying, they require a lot of food.

These little birds mostly feed on succulent nectar-rich flowers or brightly-colored hummingbird feeders in the garden.

To fuel their rapid metabolism, these colorful birds dine on flower nectar. They visit hundreds of flowers every day to consume as much nourishment as they need.

As they visit a lot of flowers every day, they become indispensable little pollinators for your garden. Using their elongated tapered beak, they can pollinate the flowers that can’t be reached by other pollinators.

As they move from one flower to another, they pollinate as they go.

They Aid In Insect Population

Other than feeding on nectar sources, these ruby-throated hummingbirds need another food source: And they’ a’re getting their protein source from small insects.

Feeding on bugs is important during the nesting season as the insects provide essential protein for the growth of hummingbird hatching chicks.

These tiny birds enjoy eating soft-bodied insects like caterpillars, gnats, aphids, and mosquitoes. They also love insect eggs. Eating these pests can keep the insect population down.

How To Attract Hummingbirds

No matter how big your garden is, to make sure the you can attract more hummingbirds in your garden and make it an ideal hummingbird garden, make sure that you:

Keep Feeders To Attract

The most common way to attract hummingbirds is by attaching low-cost brightly colored plastic feeders around your garden.

Make sure that there are some feeders hanging around your house too.

To attract even more birds, make sure to have homemade nectar from sugar water. To make this sugar-water solution:

Mix four cups of water to one cup of sugar (you can use white sugar or brown sugar)
Stir until the sugar is dissolved

Attract With Flowers

Attracting hummingbirds can be easier by planting certain colorful flowers in your garden. It’s best to have several flower beds in your garden too.

Most hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers, but orange bright flowers and pink flowers can entice them to stay in the garden too. Flowers of other colors might not be as enticing to them.

Some of the best tubular flowers and native plants to have are:

Cardinal flower
Lupine
Columbine
Penstemon
Trumpet honeysuckle
Passionflower
Mandevilla
Pinkshell azalea
Butterfly bush
Trumpet vine
Scarlet runner bean
Fuchsia
Trumpet creeper
Coral bells
New Jersey tea
Red salvia
Purple coneflowers
Salvia
Lantana
Calibrachoa
Morning glory
Flowering tobacco
Zinnia
Pineapple sage
Petunia
Lily
Iris

Add Water

These fascinating birds do not like deep baths or streams.

However, adding dippers and basins for shallow water are ideal ways to provide water to hummingbirds.

By adding a water feature, water source or a bird bath to your garden, this will give the birds a spot to cool off, to bathe, and to drink.

Avoid Pesticides

Create a safe and non-toxic environment for the birds.

To ensure that the hummingbirds won’t get sick, avoid using pesticides in your garden.

Remember that everything you put in your garden ends up in the nectar that the hummingbirds eat and if you eat from the same garden, the same goes for you. Rather than using chemicals and pesticides, which can result in less nectar for the flowers, you can use compost and other natural formulations instead.

Offer Shelter

Like any other birds, hummingbirds also require shelter.

However, unlike most birds which will gladly move into bird houses, hummingbirds won’t.

So in order to provide shelter and a hummingbird habitat, plant a few small trees around the garden. The branches of these trees will offer the hummingbirds a place to perch and to protect themselves from predators and the weather.

Attracting small birds to your garden.. But how?