Six Dollar Family

Six Dollar Family

  • Home
  • About
  • Thrifty & Frugal Living
    • Personal Finance Tips
  • DIY & Crafts
  • Family Recipes
  • Homesteading
    • Green Living Tips
  • Learn to Blog
  • All Posts
You are here: Home » Homesteading Tips » Gardening » How to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Yard

July 4, 2019 By Stacy Williams

How to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Yard

Filed Under: Gardening

This post may contain affiliate or referral links that help keep this site running. For more information about this, please see our Disclosure Policy. As an associate of Amazon.com/Amazon.uk/Amazon.ca/and other websites, I may earn a small commission whenever you click through a link from this site. This commission helps to support this site and keep it running. Six Dollar Family is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com/Amazon.uk/Amazon.ca.




I love watching birds as they come to visit a garden full of flowers. Hummingbirds are my favorite to watch. I just think it’s so cool to watch them flutter about as they enjoy the nectar given by flowers and in hummingbird feeders. If your yard or garden is not attracting hummingbirds, it can be well worth it to learn how to attract hummingbirds to your yard. It’s a little bit of work and more than just putting out a feeder, but it is so worth it!

Ready for beautiful hummingbird visits? Let me show you how to attract hummingbirds to your yard and how to make homemade hummingbird nectar. Click to learn more.

Most of us know that you can attract hummingbirds to your yard and garden with hummingbird nectar. I wish attracting hummingbirds was as simple as putting out a red hummingbird feeder and calling it good, but it’s not. If you want to have hummingbirds who visit your yard often, you’ll need to be ready to do the work.

How to Attract Hummingbirds

Think of it this way – the hummingbirds are the reward for the work you’ll be putting into your yard! We all like to be rewarded for hard work, don’t we? Not only does taking the time to attract the hummingbirds to you yard give you a great reward, but you’ll also have a fantastic looking garden after!

How to Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden

Plant a continuous flower garden

Just like planting a vegetable garden, your flower garden should be staggered. Staggering when you plant allows your garden to bloom for as long as possible. Hummingbirds are attracted to flowers so the longer yours grow, the longer you’ll be able to attract them.

Plant new species of flowers, but…

If your garden is lacking in variety, planting a new species of flower can help attract hummingbirds. They prefer long tubular flowers such as trumpet daffodils. You’ll want to make sure what you plant is native to the area though so they grow better.

Plant many different colored flowers

Hummingbirds are attracted to bright colors like red, orange and yellow. As they are flying over your garden, the bright colors attract them and cause them to swing down for a visit. When you’re planting your garden to attract hummingbirds, keep that in mind.  Plant many varieties of flowers in bright colors.

Plant flowers of different heights

Like colors, planting flowers of differing heights can help attract hummingbirds to your yard. Again, if they catch the birds attention from the air, they are more likely to stop by to feed.

Learn to deadhead your garden flowers

Have you ever heard of deadheading your garden? It is a method that helps to keep your flowers blooming longer. Basically, once a flower blooms, the plant itself thinks its work is done and does not bloom again. When you deadhead the flower, you pick off the bloom after it has fully bloomed. This tricks the plant into blooming a second time giving you a longer flowering season.

Use surveyor tape to help attract hummingbirds

As I’ve already mentioned, hummingbirds are attracted to bright colors. You can help attract them to your yard by using orange surveyor tape to make your yard brighter for them. Wrap the tape around trees or anywhere you feel may easily be noticed from the air.

Repaint dull hummingbird feeders

If you already have hummingbird feeders hung, make sure the paint has not dulled. If it has, grab a bottle of magenta or red nail polish and repaint them. Make sure the polish is 100% dry before you rehang them. The brighter colors will help to attract humming birds.

Make perches for hummingbirds to rest on

When we think of hummingbirds, we typically think of flittering wings that never stop. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Hummingbirds do rest and you can attract them to your yard by giving them perches or birdhouses to rest on. Use flowers and bushes you already have planted to create perches and add a birdhouse or two for them to use as shelters. You could even make feeders like our milk jug bird feeder for them to use as perches. Be sure to use red tape when you make it so they are attracted to the color!

Add bird baths to your garden

Another way to learn how to attract hummingbirds is to add a water source to your garden. You could add a bird bath such as our upcycled bird bath from terra cotta pots to add both beauty and function to your yard. Having a bird bath gives all birds – not just hummingbirds – a place to cool themselves off on a hot day. Be sure to keep your bird bath full.

Add a mister to your yard

If a bird bath doesn’t strike your fancy, consider getting a garden mister and using it to add a water source to your yard. Hummingbirds will zip back and forth through the mist.

Leave spider webs alone

I am not a fan of spiders, but if you’re wanting to attract hummingbirds, leave their webs alone. Not only do they eat the insects that get caught in the web, but they also use the web itself to help build their nests.

Place your feeders strategically

If you are hanging hummingbird feeders, make sure to be a bit strategic when you hang them. Hanging them near flowers, perches or birdhouses will increase the likelihood that they will attract the hummingbirds you’re looking for.

Help fight bird bullying

Yes, there is such a thing. If you find that you have one hummingbird who is dominating over the others, it’s a rather easy fix. Cluster your feeders together to help. Doing so will ensure that your bully bird is not able to lord over one (or all) of your feeders.

How to Make Homemade Hummingbird Nectar

Fill your feeders with the proper hummingbird nectar

Hummingbirds love a sweet nectar but you want to make sure what you’re putting in your feeders won’t hurt them and won’t taste bad for them. Give them what they want and your hummingbird friends will continue to come back to visit.

To make homemade (Six Dollar Family) hummingbird nectar, simply combine 1/4 cup part granulated sugar with 1 cup parts boiling distilled water. Mix well until the sugar is fully dissolved.  Allow it to cool before filling your feeders.

While we’re talking about nectar feeders, be sure to keep them full. Empty feeders will not encourage hummingbirds to visit.

Hang your feeders by the calendar

Instead of waiting till spring is in full swing to hang your feeders or removing them at the first sign of fall, keep them out a bit late and hang them a bit early. Doing so will let you catch any early or late migrating birds.

If you’ve tried in the past but have failed to learn how to attract hummingbirds to your yard, keep trying. Use the tips above to prepare your yard or garden and eventually you’ll be successful! Do you have any other tips on how to attract hummingbirds? Leave me a comment because I’d love to hear them!


Previous Post: « Charcoal and Sea Salt Scrub Recipe for Healthy Skin
Next Post: Strawberry Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Dressing Recipe »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mikesays

    July 9, 2019 at 4:14 pm

    People in the past have said to not use red food coloring in the nectar as it will harm the birds, in the 50’s and 60’s the red food coloring was bad for people and animals, but the Food and Drug made the companies change their formula to make it safe for all and that’s why you see companies still make the hummingbird nectar with the red color, I don’t mind making mine without, it’s easier an cheaper.

    • Stacy Williamssays

      July 9, 2019 at 6:11 pm

      You are correct Mike, homemade is much cheaper 🙂

Primary Sidebar

Looking for Something?

Bio of Stacy Williams, blogger and authorI’m Stacy - 1/4 of the Six Dollar Family. I'm on a journey to become a six figure family and I would love if you came along with me! We'll kick off our shoes, sip sweet tea, eat loads of goodies, save some money and maybe even learn a thing or two along the way! Six Dollar Family Bio

Order your copy of the Six Dollar Family Book

Footer

From Six Dollars to Six Figures

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
© 2011-2020 Six Dollar Media | All Rights Reserved. | Disclosure Policy | Privacy Policy
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.