Attracting Hummingbirds

With Plants

Attracting Hummingbirds to your yard will take some effort and patience. However, it will be an endeavour that will be well rewarded with many thrilling moments.

If you love to flower garden you will be one step ahead of everyone else because Hummingbirds love flowers! At the bottom of this page, you will find a list of plants that attract Hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds love flowers not just for the nectar that the blooms provide. They require a good dose of “bug” on their menu each day to keep up their busy lifestyle. The flowers provide the little birds with a culinary assortment of bugs to eat.

Two meals in one!

Flowers also provide an ideal location for spiders to spin their webs. This is a double bonus for attracting Hummingbirds. They will eat the spiders and then use the spider’s web to build their nests. Just like royalty, food and drink served in high style!

Providing a continuous blooming flower garden during the “hummingbird season” will act as a magnet for attracting the Hummers. They will have all the bugs and nectar they need from your feeder and flower garden.

Calliope Hummingbird at a Bee Balm plant.

• Attracting Hummingbirds can also be accomplished by tying brightly coloured strands close to, or on the hummingbird feeder itself. Many materials can be used, such as; ribbon, cloth, crepe paper, or pieces of plastic bags. The key is that it be colourful. Cut the material into strips of about 6 inches long. They should not be too long, as lengthy streaming tails may scare them off.

• Blossoms, real or artificial, inserted into the feeding ports of the hummingbird feeder will also guide them to the right spot. After the little wild birds have found the feeder and are coming regularly it won’t be necessary to keep inserting the blossoms.

• Red is the colour that studies indicate is most popular with Hummingbirds. But this is not to the exclusion of other colours. They are also drawn to orange, yellow and many other bright colours. Red should be considered just a favourite, not an “only”.

• The sound of water is also a magnet for luring birds to your yard. Hummingbirds like all birds, find water irresistible. Not surprising as almost all living creatures require water for survival.

Tying bits of material or growing flowers with a variety of colour create the winning ingredient to attracting the little birds to your yard.

One little visitor successfully drawn to your feeder will provide all the future advertising that will be needed! Others will be sure to follow. Once you have been successfully attracting Hummingbirds to your garden the little birds will remain for the entire season and return year after year!

The following is a list of plants that invite Hummingbirds to your flower garden. It is helpful to check with a local garden center or bird watching group for plants that grow best in your region.



Flowering Perennials

Bee Balm (Bergamot), Bleeding Heart, Cardinal Flower, Columbine, Coral Bells, Cowslip (Virginia Bluebells), Crocosima ‘Lucifer’, Daylily, Foxglove, Gay Feather (Blazing Star), Hollyhock, Hosta, Hyssop, Jewel Weed, Larkspur, Milkweed (Butterfly Weed), Obedient Plant, Penstemon, Phlox, Pink, Raspberry, Red-Hot-Poker, Soapwort, Turtlehead

Flowering Annuals

Canna Lily, Comfrey, Four-O’clock, Fuchsia, Gladiolus, Impatiens, Mexican Sunflower, Nasturtium, Pentas, Peruvian Lily, Petunia, Red Salvia, Sage, Snapdragon, Zinnia

Vines

Clematis Vine, Cross Vine, Honeysuckle Vine, Red Morning Glory, Scarlet Runner Bean, Snapdragon Vine, Trumpet Vine or Creeper

Shrubs

Autumn Olive, Azalea, Beauty Bush, Butterfly Bush, Buttonbush, Cardinal Shrub, Common Witch Hazel, Flowering Quince, Glossy Abelia, Golden Currant, Gooseberry, Honeysuckle, Lilac, Red Buckeye, Red-flowering Currant, Rhododendron, Rose of Sharon, Snowberry, Viburnum

Trees

Black Locust, Flowering Cherry, Flowering Crabapple, Horsechestnut, Mimosa (Silk Tree), Necklace Pod (Silverbush), Red Horsechestnut, Siberian Pea Tree, Texas Madrone, Tulip Tree,

Hummingbirds Migration and Range Amazing Facts!

Attracting Hummingbirds to View Mating and Nesting

Hummingbird Information on Habitat and Habits