Category: Hummingbirds

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I Love Animals, Especially Birds, In My Garden

Beija-flor (Eupetomena macroura) – Swallow-tailed Hummingbid 2 592 – 2 by Flávio Cruvinel Brandão

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky

by William Wordsworth

So does my heart leap up when I behold an animal, bird or beneficial insect that has returned or come for the first time to my garden.

For example, I have a number of birds nests but only one seems to have a resident each year. I know that size of opening is a major factor that determines which bird will use a certain bird house. But I also read that birds seem to like pretty bird houses and this birdhouse that has had birds build nests every year is the prettiest birdhouse on my property.  I had also been told that bird houses should be cleaned out yearly because birds can have lice and that the inhabitants need it clean. This bird house was filled so high with twigs that I couldn’t believe another bird could fit into it. So last fall I cleaned out all the all old twigs only to be entertained by this year’s birds filling the nest back up with twigs piled so high. I didn’t think anything could fit in besides the twigs but I hope they know what they are doing and lay eggs on that pile.   Check out this video clip.

I have lots of birds on this property because I have lots of shrubs for them to hide or build nests and have a stream for them to drink water. I plant flowers that I believe will encourage birds, butterflies and good insects. My soil has been amended so that I have lots of healthy worms. Robins love the worms. I have yellow flowers for the goldfinch so it is a special delight when they return. One has been tap-tap -tapping on the window.

And of course, I do everything I can to encourage hummingbirds. This year I added a honeysuckle that they love Lonicera sempervirens – coral red honeysuckle. Hummingbirds are always such a delight to see in the garden. ( I also have hummingbird moths. See here. )

I have so many birds singing at daybreak that I don’t need a rooster to wake me up each morning.

I have been spraying Liquid Fence on the plants so that deer won’t eat the ones I planted. My heart leaps up even when I see deer but there is enough wild greens for them to eat without eating dessert all the time – like my hostas are to them.  This year I have so many hostas in bloom that I hope all the black swallowtail butterflies will see them  and return. I have been counting those swallowtail butterflies that I see but there haven’t been that many.  I always had a lot of hosta flowers before deer became so prevalent and decimated these flowers. Liquid Fence has been my garden’s savior.

As I sit and write TheGardenLady post, I am often entertained by a bird resting on a branch outside in my backyard. I especially love to see the colorful ones, like the cardinals that always build nests in shrubs around the house.

I almost stopped using my front door because a delicate paper wasp nest was built. I am leaving it up for now unless someone gets stung. As much as I believe this is a beneficial insect, at the end of the year, sadly, I will have it removed.

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Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air (Video Clip)

Hummingbirds are amazing little creatures, so fast and ephemeral.  Yet they are also so difficult to see for very long with the naked eye.  This YouTube video is a clip of a PBS Nature program called Magic in the Air, which gives us more than a fleeting glimpse of these captivating animals.  See the full video here.

Ann Johnson Prum is the cinematographer and as you learn in the video she uses hi-speed computer-controlled cameras to capture these tough-to-capture energetic hummingbirds.  It’s beautiful to watch.  Enjoy.

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Hummingbirds: A Lecture by Eileen Boyle

TheGardenLady attended a lecture given by Eileen Boyle, the education coordinator at Mt. Cuba Center. The talk was on Hummingbirds – Trochilidae family.

There are 328 species of Hummingbirds in the world, mostly in the Tropics but in the Eastern half of North America there is only one breeding hummingbird. This is the Ruby Throated Hummingbird- Archilochus colubris.  In the western half of North America there is a hummingbird called the Rufous -Selasphorus rufus that sometimes gets lost and winds up in the Eastern half of the country, but that is rare. Hummingbirds migrate to Central America for the winter and return about mid April to the mid-Atlantic states.

Hummingbirds eat nectar and bugs. I thought that Hummingbirds have to eat half their weight in food each day, but I read online that “Hummingbirds must eat more than their weight in food each day, and they fulfill this need by eating often. They eat approximately every 10 minutes. Because their survival depends critically on eating frequently, more than any other animal – they continually face the danger of starving.”  Hummingbirds have to eat a lot. So you will be helping Hummingbirds by providing their food needs.

To attract hummingbirds to your property, put out hummingbird feeders. Be sure to change the sugar water in them and clean them every 2 or 3 days- washing in the dishwasher is best. Put up multiple feeders, because if you start attracting hummingbirds, you will attract a lot of them and they are very aggressive and territorial. They like feeders where they can perch while sipping. Plant flowers to attract hummingbirds to your property. Hummingbirds love red, yellow, orange and blue tubular flowers. They are not attracted to fragrances. They need early to late blooming flowers to sustain them. They like wetlands and use the down of cattails, spider webs and down of pussy willows to line their nests. They need water to drink and need water to wash in- they even enjoy a gurgling fountain.  Watch this.

A list of basically native plants given by Eileen Boyle

Red buckeye Aesculus pavia

Wild columbine Aquilegia canadensis

Butterfly weed Asclepias tuberosa or any kind of Asclepias

Trumpet creeper Campsis radicans

Spike gayfeather Liatris spicata

Canada lily Lilium canadense

Turk’s cap lily Lilium superbum

Cardinal flower Lobelia cardinalis

Trumpet honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens (this is the native honeysuckle that is not invasive.)

Scarlet beebalm Monarda didyma

Wild Sweet William Phlox maculata

Downy phlox Phlox pilosa

Alabama phlox Phlox pulchra

Plum-leaved azalea Rhododendron prunifolium

Pink-shell azalea Rhodendron vaseyi

Indian pink Spigelia marilandica

Fire pink Silene virginica

Mt. Cuba Center will be having a Hummingbird weekend this August from Fri. Aug. 27th through Aug. 29th taught by Eileen Boyle and Bill Hilton Jr. Though one session calls itself a teachers workshop, this Hummingbird weekend is open to everyone. They will teach how to set up a hummingbird garden and will even demonstrate how to band hummingbirds. Bill Hilton Jr who was written up in 2008 Discover magazine as one of the “50 best brains in Science” and a top 10 in amateur scientist leads hummingbird tours to Costa Rica. See here.

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Hummingbirds are Arriving

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female) by rwolfert (on flickr)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (female) by rwolfert (on flickr)

TheGardenLady is sure that one of the reasons you like to have flowers is because you hope to attract or already attract hummingbirds to
your garden (see here).

People keep track of when they arrive in your state. For example, they are already starting to arrive in New Jersey (see here)

And sometimes when they arrive they need you to help feed them by putting up hummingbird feeders (see here).  You can buy hummingbird feeders in your local hardware store. Or you can make your own hummingbird feeders (see here).

Remember hummingbirds are territorial. Once they find your garden they will return each year. If you want to attract more hummingbirds, place more feeders throughout your yard. But don’t forget, YOU MUST CLEAN the feeders frequently so the birds don’t get sick.

Continue reading “Hummingbirds are Arriving”