Hummingbirds are found throughout the Americas including the Caribbean. Famous for their ability to hover and their skill at backward flying, hummingbirds hover by continuously flapping their wings up to 85 times a second.

The Bee Hummingbird is the smallest bird in the world at only two inches in length and 1.8 grams. The largest hummingbird is the Giant Hummingbird at twenty four grams in weight and eight inches long. They have the highest metabolism of all birds and to sustain this they have to consume their own weight and more in food every day. So that they can do this they have to visit hundreds blooms a day to gather the nectar. They have extended beaks and tongues to reach deep into the blooms. They have the ability decrease their metabolisms when at rest, in contrast to the majority of other animals with a high metabolisms. This lengthens their natural life, which may be up to sixteen years.

How to Make A Hummingbird Friendly Garden

To draw hummingbirds to your garden plant brightly colored flowers and bushes. Hummingbirds have very little sense of smell but they are drawn to brilliant colours. Placing a a speciality hummingbird feeder in your garden or on your patio will be a focus for these lovely birds. Plant annuals include jacobinia, salvia, beard tongue, jewelweed, impatiens and petunia. Perennial plants include bee balm, costa, yucca, canna, lupine, cardinal flower and foxglove. For trees and shrubs choose azalea, buddleia, cape honeysuckle, mimosa, weigela, flame acanthus, lantana, red buckeye and tree tobacco.

Do not use any pesticides in your garden as this will eradicate bugs and insects that hummingbirds eat. They will also leave deposits on flowers which the hummingbirds may ingest. Also supply a lot of places to rest as hummingbirds will spend approximately 80% of their time sitting on twigs, clothes lines etc. Supply plants that will provide nesting materials to attract female hummingbirds. Hummingbirds prefer feathery nesting material from trees like eucalyptus and willow and from ferns, mosses and lichens.

Hanging up brightly colored, hummingbird feeders in your garden will exert a pull on the hummingbirds. A good plan is to fasten red ribbons that will blow around the feeder. It is also helpful to supply feeders at different heights as hummingbird species all have distinctive preferences. Species that favor plants that are low growing will visit a feeder sited lower whilst species that feed on taller plants and shrubs will choose to visit a feeder sited higher. Hummingbirds are also extremely territorial and one hummingbird might defend a particular feeder and prevent others from using it. Put no less than three feeders at assorted heights all around your backyard.

Hummingbirds love a bath in the mist on plants so you might place a mister near to some broadleaved vegetation to provide them with a bathing place.

How to Make Hummingbird Nectar

A sweet nectar can be made by mixing together one cup of sugar with four cups of water that has been boiled. Cool and store in the fridge. Excess nectar can safely be stored for approximately a week. Scrupulously clean hummingbird feeders every week by rinsing with a mixture of one cup of vinegar to 4 cups of water then washing out with clean water. Fill up with the nectar and suspend out of the sun. Don’t use any food coloring or sweeteners. Also don’t use honey as it can ferment and be the source of a a poisonous fungus. Change the solution in the feeder every two or three days or oftener when the weather is hotter.

Conclusion

It’s not hard to make a garden to appeal to these beautiful birds. Provide them with the food they like and a comfortable setting and hummingbirds will visit your garden regularly.

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