Hummingbirds

Attracting Hummingbirds

The hummingbird diet consists of nectar and bugs.

A good garden naturally has lots of bugs, as long as you don't use insecticides. A pond or other water supply will attract additional bugs, but is not necessary.

Nectar is easy to provide in a feeder, however, you need to spend time and energy each week cleaning and refilling the feeder. It is unhealthy for hummingbirds to eat from a moldy feeder. I find it easier and more pleasant to tend to a flower bed than to clean feeders. Besides, flowers are more interesting to look at than most feeders and they provide food for butterflies and bees too.

Here's a list of some nectar producing plants that hummingbirds love:

• Fuchsias - Both hardy and hanging basket kinds
• Beebalm
• Sweet William
• Agastache
• Butterfly Bush* (Buddleia dividii or B. alternifolia)
• Bleeding Hearts
• Canna
• Cape Fuchsia

• Columbine
• Milkweed & Butterfly Weed
• Red Hot Poker
• Cardinal Flower
• Penstemons
• Salvias
• Honeysuckle Vines
• Zinnia - perhaps more for the tiny insects hiding in the flowers than for the nectar

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Be sure to visit Pollinator Partnership and check out their Pollinator Friendly Planting Guides. These are full of information about how you can protect and help out pollinators where you live. Also explore their listing of resources, especially the section for home gardens. They've put together an amazing amount of information!

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