Attracting Hummers

It is not difficult to attract hummingbirds to your house or garden, assuming you live in an area where they exist, even transiently. Just a feeder or two, and/or some flowers that hummers are partial to, will see them becoming regular visitors. It might take an hour, or several months, but once they find your feeders or flowers, they are more than likely to return at frequent intervals. I have probably spent thousands of hours observing hummingbirds, and I am not even close to tiring of it…

 Once hummingbirds find a feeder, word gets around fast……

I use two specific types of feeders, having field tested many – you can read about them here.

Some good sites to visit on attracting hummingbirds are here and here.

 Hummers even feed from good ol’ common Agapanthus!

Hummingbirds (contrary to popular opinion) do not only feed from ‘tubular’ flowers. They will investigate just about any type of flower, and if it produces nectar, they will return to it. Large areas of small, bright flowers will soon have them buzzing around (along with bees, unfortunately!). Here is a list compiled by Birdwatchers.com that are recommended for attracting hummers:

Flower species that hummingbirds are attracted towards:

Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis
Lantana Lantana camara
Columbine Aguilegia spp.
Fuchsias Fuchsia spp.
Impatiens Impatiens spp.
Coral-Bells Heuchera sanguinea
Hollyhocks Althea spp.
Penstemen Penstemen spp.
Petunia Petunia spp.
Flowering Tobacco Nicotania alata
Geranium Pelargonium spp.
Begonia Begonia spp.

Shrubs:

Azaleas Rhododendron spp.
Butterfly Bush Buddleia davidii
Flowering Quince Chaenomeles japonica
Honeysuckle Lonicera spp.
Weigela Weigela spp.

Trees:

Flowering Crab Malus spp.
Tulip Poplar Liriodendron Tulipifera
Locust Robinia
Eucalyptus Eucalyptus spp.
Vines Honeysuckle Lonicera heckrottii
Morning Glory Ipomea ssp.
Trumpet Creeper Campsis radicans
Trumpet Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 at 2:32 pm. It is filed under Featured, Hummingbird Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.