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Simple tips for attracting hummingbirdsGet your feeders up early to attract hummingbirds this spring By Anne Schmauss By Mary Schmauss By Geni Krolick
Published: February 20, 2009 As owners of Wild Birds Unlimited stores located at Ground Zero for hummingbirds (New Mexico), we know one thing for certain: Hummingbirds are the most anticipated birds every spring.
It could be because they are so beautiful. It could be because they hover so bravely, and so close, as we fill their feeders. Or it could be because they are the only birds that can hover and fly backward - even upside-down.
According to the ABA, 17 species are seen annually in North America, but only one is a sure bet east of the Mississippi - the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. The rest occur in the west. Common species there include the aggressive Rufous, the tiny Calliope (our continent's smallest bird), the Broad-tailed, and the Black-chinned. The beautiful bird pictured above, a Violet-crowned Hummingbird, is a westerner, too, but it isn't so common; it's found only in southeast Arizona.
All hummingbirds are remarkable creatures, and lucky for us, they are easy to attract if you know what to do when. Here are a few tips to get you started:
Hang your feeders early. Like so much in life, timing is everything. Hummingbirds that migrate north from Mexico and Central and South America are hungry when they get here. They naturally eat insects and nectar from flowers, but both are in short supply when they arrive. This makes a visit to your feeder more likely.
In the southern half of the U.S., get your feeders up in early April. In the north, hang them in early May, even if it's still cold - or snowy. Our customers have told us they've brushed snow off feeders for impatiently waiting hummingbirds.
If you live in a city, migration may be your only chance to see hummingbirds - so don't delay. If you wait until you've seen a bird, you will likely have already missed dozens. In more rural areas and in much of the west, when you hang your feeder isn't as important since hummingbirds stick around to nest.
Follow the recipe. The nectar you provide should be a boiled mixture of four parts water to one part white table sugar. Don't use red dye, and don't let your nectar sit in the feeder. Keep it fresh, no more than four days old.
Start with a saucer-style feeder. We've found that they don't drip, they are easy to clean, bees don't like them (because they have trouble reaching the nectar), and they are normally red, the color that attracts hummingbirds.
Hang your feeder close to a window. Hummingbirds don't mind coming close, and they are so fun to watch. (In "New Products," you can see a feeder that can be mounted directly on a window.)
Hang baskets of flowers, too. Impa-tiens, geranium, salvia, and petunias are well-known hummingbird-friendly flowers. Red is best. Honeysuckle and trumpet-vine are real hummingbird magnets, too, but don't bloom until later.
One more thing: If you hang your feeder in a tree, don't nestle it too close to branches. Hummingbirds like a little elbow (wing) room.
Later in the summer and during the fall migration, you'll see more hummingbirds because of all the young that have hatched, but nothing matches the excitement of those first few sightings each spring. Get your feeders up early, so you don't miss it!
The other nectar eater
Don't be surprised to see an oriole struggling to eat at your hummingbird feeder this spring.
Orioles arrive in early April in the south and early May in the north, and their sweet tooth is as big as any hummingbird's. Anne has even seen a Bullock's Oriole pulling at the blooms of a hanging red geranium.
You can cater to orioles by offering orange halves or grape jelly, or with special nectar feeders. As you can see on page 59, oriole feeders are usually orange, and their feeding ports and perches are larger than those on hummingbird feeders.
Be sure to hang your treats where they can be seen easily from above. |
| Anne Schmauss, Mary Schmauss, and Geni Krolick are sisters and bird experts who live in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, where they own and manage Wild Birds Unlimited stores. Their book For the Birds: A Month-by-Month Guide to Attracting Birds to Your Backyard was published in 2008 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. In our next issue, they will give their best tips for attracting birds in May and June. |
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