The sun is barely up over the mountains and shining on my front door. I look out and see my beautiful flowers.
Then suddenly, I have a tiny visitor. He beats his wings at 80 beats per minute. You’ve probably guessed it. My early morning visitor is a Hummingbird.
How I love waking up to see them flapping at my storm door. They love the flowers that surround my porch, and I love the joy they bring me.
But how do you keep hummingbirds coming back year after year? It is quite simple actually.
How to Attract Hummingbirds
Here is how you can always make your hummingbird friends feel welcome:
1. Paint Your Yard Red
Hummingbirds love the color red. You don’t actually need to spray paint your grass red, but you could add a few different red items in your yard to attract them.
First, you could add a nice red bench, red chairs on your front porch, a red picnic table, a red umbrella, or even a few colorful red flags around your yard.
Second, you could add red shutters to your home, or a red mailbox.
Finally, you could simply add more red décor such as red garden flags, red pillows for your porch swing, or other red decorations of that nature.
2. Plant Flowers for the Hummingbirds
via Almanac.com
Hummingbirds naturally love certain flowers. If you want them to come back year after year, then you should plant flowers that will draw them in.
Some flowers that they love are: Cardinal flowers, Geraniums, Begonia, Hollyhocks, Flowering Tobacco, Morning Glories, Impatiens, Eucalyptus, and what I plant every year, Petunias.
So if you want the hummingbirds to come back, plant a few of these gorgeous flowers and plants near your home and see if it doesn’t draw them in.
3. Plant Shrubs for Them Too
via Deb’s Garden
Don’t think that you have to plant the same flowers year after year to draw hummingbirds. You could actually just plant some shrubs that will come back year after year.
Then the hummingbirds will have those to draw to. Some shrubs that hummingbirds really love are: Azaleas, Butterfly Bushes, and Honeysuckle.
We actually have a lot of honeysuckle around our property. I’m sure that is part of what draws them there too.
But if you have any of these items near your home, it should draw the hummingbirds right to your home.
4. Say No to Pesticides
You don’t want to use pesticides on any of the plants that you plant in order to draw the hummingbirds. The reason is because if the hummingbirds decide to drink nectar from these plants you could potentially harm or kill them.
As you can tell, that would be completely counterproductive.
So you’ll definitely want to keep that in mind when trying to attract hummingbirds to your property.
5. Create a Continuous Blooming Schedule
When you plant in your yard, think about it as a schedule for the hummingbirds. You’ll want to plant with blooming in mind.
Basically, don’t plant where everything will bloom at once and then be gone. If that is the case, then there is no continuous food source to keep the hummingbirds there.
Instead, plant where one thing will bloom first. Then when it is done another plant will bloom. Let that cycle continue so the desire to be present at your home will continue as well.
6. Deadhead Blooms
If you are unfamiliar with what the term ‘deadhead’ means, it means that when you see a dead or dying bloom on a plant, then you simply pluck it off.
This will encourage the plant to bloom again. The more blooms you have in your yard the more food available for the hummingbirds.
Therefore, you are encouraging them to hang around your property all the more.
So by keeping your plants beautiful, thriving, and blooming you are making your land an oasis for the hummingbirds.
7. Hummingbird Feeders
Hummingbird feeders are one of the most common things you can add to your property to draw them in.
However, you have to do a couple of the other things as well to get their attention.
So when adding a hummingbird feeder make sure that it is red and vibrant. This will help to catch a hummingbird’s eye when he is flying way up in the sky.
8. Homemade Nectar
Hummingbirds prefer natural nectar to the store bought or homemade kind. But if you are trying to draw them to your property early or late in the season, then it is recommended to make homemade nectar for them.
The reason for this is simply that most think they enjoy homemade nectar better than the store bought stuff.
Plus, it is so simple to make, why wouldn’t you make it? The recipe is 1 part sugar and 4 parts water.
Then you’ll boil it for only a minute or two. When creating this homemade nectar do not add any red food dye, honey, or sweeteners to it. This is not good for the hummingbirds.
9. Add More Red to the Feeders
If you don’t feel like your feeders are getting enough activity, it could be because other hummingbirds don’t realize they are there.
So in that case you’ll want to add more red to the feeders. You can do this by adding a bright red or orange ribbon to the feeder by tying it around it.
Also, you could use bright red nail polish to help embellish the red color a little more. You could add red glitter or sparkles to the feeder.
Or even hang it on a red hook to help the feeder to stand out a little more.
10. Take Care of the Nectar in the Feeders
You’ll also want to take care of the nectar that is in the feeders. Be sure to only fill the feeders about half way up.
The reason for that is because the mixture will mold if it sits too long. You also should check your feeders every 3-4 days.
That way if they need to be refilled you’ll know it, but if they don’t you’ll need to see if it is time to change the nectar out of it.
11. Add More Feeders
There are certain types of hummingbirds that can be very territorial, especially the males.
So you’ll want to keep an eye out and see if you have one dominant male that is running other hummingbirds away from the feeders.
If so, then you’ll need to add another feeder. You have multiple options with this.
First, you could add additional feeders on the other side of your property that is out of eye shot from the other feeder. That way the dominant male won’t realize the other hummingbirds are going to it.
However, the danger you run into this is another dominant male finding that feeder and then running the rest of the hummingbirds away from it.
Second, you can leave the first feeder where it is and hang a cluster of feeders nearby. That way it will draw a bunch of hummingbirds to all of the different feeders, and it will be physically impossible for the one dominant male to fight all of the other hummingbirds away from the additional feeders.
12. Add a Mister
There is a device called a mister that you can purchase for your garden hose. The purpose of this little tool is to cause your water hose to create a light mist.
So you might be wondering why you want this.
Well, you could do something as traditional as a shallow bird bath for your hummingbirds. They like to bathe and have a good time just like other birds.
Or you could go with this mister. The mister draws hummingbirds because it is light and fun. They can zip back and forth through it until they are as wet as they want to be.
Then they can go post near the feeder and feel like the king or queen of the world.
13. Give Them a Perch
Just like any other bird, a hummingbird likes to perch too. You can give them perfect little perches all over your yard to draw them to you.
So you’ll need to place a stick in the ground vertically. You’ll want it to be about 50 feet away from the feeder, but still where it can be seen from the feeder.
Then your hummingbirds will eat and fly to their perch so they can be high enough to see dangers and also bugs that might fly by that would make a delicious snack.
Learn how to make a beautiful DIY perch here.
14. Tie a Ribbon Around Your Landscaping
You can use a ribbon or caution tape, whatever you have available.
Either way, attach a yellow, red, or orange ribbon to your shrubs or trees. This will catch a hummingbird’s eye as it is flying over your property.
Then they will become curious and fly down to your yard to see what all of the colors are about. When this happens, if you have everything else in place, you may have a new buddy for the year.
15. Look for Plants That Are Easy to Drink From
via Gardening Know How
It is a common misconception that hummingbirds stick their long bills into a plant and suck the nectar from it.
In reality, they stick their long bills inside the bell of the plant and lick the nectar up really quickly.
But in order for them to be able to eat, they have to have a flower that has a bell shape to it that they can easily get their bill into.
So I know I mentioned a few flowers earlier you could plant, but if you come across any other plants that have that bell shape to it, you could try to plant them.
You never know what might be a hummingbird’s new favorite snack. Anything that you think might work for their needs is worth a try.
So you now have 15 different options to draw hummingbirds to your property. Hopefully, this will help you to turn your yard into a hummingbird oasis.
But I’d like to know what you think. Do you think this is a lot of work just to keep a hummingbird around? Do you do something different to draw hummingbirds to your yard? If so, what is it, why, and how does it work?
We love hearing from you so please leave us your thoughts on the subject in the space provided below.
