If you’ve seen a hummingbird, you don’t have to wonder why you need to attract humming birds to your garden. Their beautiful presence is enough reason why. The real reason why people wish to attract hummingbirds, though, is to pollinate the flowers. Hummingbirds have this distinct beak that makes them one of the best pollinators around.
Plant Flowers That Attract Hummingbirds
The most obvious way to attract hummingbirds to your garden is to plant flowers that they like. Some of the plants that hummingbirds prefer include sage, bee balm, columbine, trumpet honeysickle, and columbine.
If you don’t have a trumpet vine or trumpet creeper in your garden yet, you better start looking for one. These flowers, which have long and tubular flowers filled with nectar, are also called hummingbird vine and the reason is pretty obvious.
The best way to attract hummingbirds is to start your garden with them in mind. Aside from planting the right flowers, your garden design should be made attractive to these flyers. The Spruce has a more detailed explanation on how to make your hummingbird garden.
Add New Plant Species
If you’ve been gardening for a while now, you probably already have plants that attract hummingbirds. You may want to add more if you’re not getting enough buzzing visitors.
Check out all the plants you have then see if there are other plant species you can add. Consult bird experts, gardening veterans, or simply look for a list online.
Get Rid of Old Blossoms
Deadheading is the process of removing old blossoms that have already wilted. When you remove the seedheads, the plant will think that it’s not done blooming yet and will thus produce more flowers and seedheads. Of course, more flowers mean more hummingbirds.
Rehabilitate Old Bird Feeders
Dull bird feeders are not to appealing to the eyes of hummingbirds. Rehabilitate the old feeders by cleaning them as thorough as possible then repainting them with bright colors.
Some bird feeders come with plastic flowers. Make sure they continue to attract hummingbirds by cleaning and repainting them as well. You can use bright-colored nail polish for this task.
Get New Feeders
Old and dirty bird feeders are not that pretty to the eyes. They’re pretty hard to clean, too. If you don’t want to spend too much of your time and energy cleaning them up, just get rid of these eye sores.
If you have extra cash lying around, purchase new bird feeders to attract hummingbirds. It’s a good idea to save up and buy new feeders in time for spring.
Add More Bird Feeders
The more feeders you have, the more likely you’ll attract hummingbirds. If you’re having second thoughts about throwing away old feeders, just clean them up enough for the hummingbirds to come perching. And with the money you have saved, get new ones.
Place your bird feeders around your yard, particularly near your garden. You can also combine or place the bird feeders in a cluster so they can attract hummingbirds even more.
Use Large Bird Feeders
A huge bird feeder works the same way as a cluster of feeders. The larger it is, the more birds will come and perch. Look for bird feeders with spacious reservoirs and lots of feeding ports.
Attract Hummingbirds With Snag Perches
Hummingbirds like to perch to rest their tired wings. They also perch to do some hunting, sunning, preening, and resting from nesting.
Perches are available at specialty stores and online. You can, however, make your own perches. If you have children, this is a good activity for all of you to enjoy. They’ll also love seeing more hummingbirds near or on your garden. Check out this DIY hummingbird perch project from The Navage Patch.
Leave the Spider Webs Alone
As annoying as spider webs may be, you need to let them be if you wish to attract hummingbirds. They use spider webs to make their nests. The sticky webs keep the nest ingredients together. The whole nest also sticks to a tree branch with the help of the webs.
Hummingbirds also look after pop star Britney Spears since they’re not that innocent. That’s because they love to steal food from their friendly neighborhood spiders. The protein-rich insects stuck on spider webs attract hummingbirds since they love to munch on them.
Use Red and Orange
Hummingbirds are attracted to bright colors such as red and orange. Use red or orange surveyor’s tape or plastic ribbon to bring the birds to your yard. Tie them around tree trunks or hang them around your garden, particularly near your bird feeders and flowers.
Head over to the comment section if you wish to share what you know on how to attract hummingbirds. You can also go to The Gentleman Pirate to find more gardening tips and other similar topics.
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