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Humming Blog |
![]() Hummingbirds love nectar from flowers, but not all flowers are easy to feed from. They always choose food sources that provides the most nectar and the easiest nectar with the least amount of effort. That's why feeders are at the top of their list for food. They can sit and feed while using up little energy and gaining the most amount of calories. Here's a closeup of a young Ruby Throat feeding from a rich nectared Vining Nasturtium flower. This annual produces stiff petaled flowers which are a big advantage over Petunias. When they insert their beak deep within petunia flowers, it creates a vacuum effect and pulls the soft petals towards the wings and hinders their flying. The stiff petals on Nasturtiums are rigid enough to hold their shape and not allow this problem. I still like the Petunias, but you may want to also consider the Million Bells(Calibrachoa). They are smaller, stiffer, and rate even higher than the Petunias with hummingbirds. N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. August, 2015
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![]() We have many smaller gardens within our large garden. Depending on where the hummingbirds are focused, I'll set up a small station with my chair and camera and just let things unfold around me. There are few things in life more peaceful than making yourself part of nature and watching it all take place around you. Whether you see it or not, life is just taking place everywhere. Here I sat nestled beneath an Elderberry tree when it all started. An adult male sat on a branch behind me, and like myself, he just sat and watched, but with different intentions. He protected all his interests and I soaked up all the images I could take. Many young birds took turns feeding from the flowers that surrounded me, and in between they'd sit and rest on branches close enough to make me cross-eyed. For those who love nature photography, these are the moments you live for. It's often times very difficult to move without bringing attention to yourself, but here's one image I managed to get up close. This young Ruby Throat grasped tightly onto a Delphinium branch while it stretched every part of its body to find some hidden nectar. It's opportunities like this that keep me waiting every year for their return. 2015 N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. ![]() The most common question I get asked is, "Which flowers attract hummingbirds"? There are many that attract them, and 13 different hardiness zones which allow us hundreds of choices all depending where you live, and this only covers the perennials. Then we have many annuals to consider. There are so many choices all around, but there's one thing that matters even more, and that's quantity. If you have a small area to work with, you want to make the best use of it. Select the hummingbird flowers that are most effective and plant in masses. I have planted 10 or more large clusters of Delphiniums in my garden, and this allows many young hummingbirds to feed around my yard at any given time, and with large clusters it keeps them busy for a very long time. Hummingbirds can tire out very quickly from flower feeding and will rarely go beyond a few minutes without taking a rest, so if you can keep a hummingbird in a patch of flowers for a few minutes, you know you have a winner of a flower. Juvenile Ruby-throated hummingbird. N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. 2015 ![]() With billions of living things on this planet, I have chosen to study only one, the Ruby-throated hummingbird. When you carefully analyze every detail of it's structure, behavior and capabilities, it takes you to a place beyond imagination. The physical power and endurance of those wings, the courage much bigger than it is, the speed and agility to outperform anything of its size, and the information that can be stored within such a tiny brain, is simply unexplainable. The bird shown demonstrates how it can arrive at a flower, and with incredible speed and pinpoint accuracy inject its needle point bill into the specific location of the flower to lick up nectar at a speed of 10 licks per second. Then it proceeds to hundreds of other flowers with this same accuracy. This was a bird that hatched from an egg the size of a mini jelly bean only 30 days ago. They grow at incredible speeds, feed at incredible speeds, and move like nothing else on this planet. Even though our knowledge has greatly increased on these spectacular little birds, we've barely even scratched the surface. Juvenile Ruby-throated hummingbird, N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. 2015 ![]() My goal is always to get the young hummingbirds to figure out feeders before they migrate, as this almost guarantees their return in future years. As the population increases in my garden these young birds learn from the others about the feeders. Here's a young hummingbird that hasn't figured out the feeders yet, but has certainly differentiated between the flowers. Although the Zinnias and Calendula are very similar in appearance in this photo, this young bird dances from flower to flower bypassing the tasteless imitation. I see flowers as training feeders. If you have enough of a great selection, the young hummingbirds will stick around long enough to figure out the feeders. Also, if they solve the feeders before they migrate south, they'll recognize every feeder along their path. Feeders can be so beneficial as they can gain an enormous amount of energy without expending a lot in such a short amount of time. In future years, they'll remember the location of every one that hung along their route to their summer home. This is why so many people have reported birds showing up at their windows when they first arrive in Spring. They remember what's great and where they hung. But we can't forget the importance of flowers. They are so beneficial to attracting hummingbirds, especially the young. They naturally gravitate towards them until they solve and recognize the enormous value of the feeders. Juvenile Ruby-throated hummingbird. N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. 2015 ![]() Q: Can I get away with only planting flowers to attract Hummingbirds? A: This is a question I've come across quite often. Here's the bold truth. You won't even get a fraction of hummingbirds in comparison to those with feeders. The fact is that when a hummingbird learns about a feeder and how it's supply of nectar never seems to run out, it will never pass up a feeder again. Every living thing tends to head in the direction of the path with least resistance. Likewise, hummingbirds will choose a food source that requires little to no effort to gain the most nutrition needed to survive. They will feed from a feeder more than 90 percent of the time over a flower, if feeders are available. Here's the good news for those who don't or can't put up feeders due to certain city laws - when young hummingbirds leave the nest, they naturally understand flowers and their value. They don't understand feeders, even though they have flowers stuck on the side of them. The unusual shape of feeders don't look enough like the natural flowers and they often times shy away. In areas where the population of hummingbirds is very high, the young will figure out feeders very quickly, as all they have to do is show up at the swarm of hummingbirds drinking from a feeder to understand there's something special about those fancy red things. Ultimately, if you love hummingbirds and want to draw them to your yard, feeders are a MUST. The time and effort it takes to clean and change feeders is a minor inconvenience in comparison to the massive rewards of numerous hummingbirds to your garden. Juvenile Ruby-throat hummingbird, N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. 2015 ![]() Some annuals cross pollinate all the time and you never know what kind of seeds you'll end up with. It can be exciting to see what colors you get once they flower. Some flowers don't cross pollinate that easily and you end up with exactly what you had before. Annuals and Perennials are alike this way, all depending on each individual plant. I have found that if a hummingbird likes a particular flower, it really doesn't matter what color it is, other than white. This bland colorless flower rarely gets the attention of hummingbirds. They will often times skip right over the white to get to the other colors. With Zinnias, they produce a multitude of colors and every shade within that color, and cross pollinate all the time. If I were to pick an assortment of colors, I would choose those closest to red in the spectrum, meaning reds of course, dark pinks and oranges. These are the best attracting colors and draw hummingbirds better than anything. This is not to say they don't like other colored flowers because ultimately it comes down to the quality of food within them. I'm simply saying these are the most attractive colors that will get the attention of hummingbirds. From there, they'll choose their favorites, and that's usually flavours from their past experiences. Juvenile Ruby-throat hummingbird. August 2014, N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. ![]() Annuals are a must for producing flowers throughout the hummingbird season, but perennials have a limited bloom time. Some perennials can be spectacular in some regions and not in others, and here's the reason. Every region of North America gets their hummingbirds at different times, they leave the nest at different times, and they migrate south at different times. This is where it's very important to understand your own times. Choose perennials that will flower in your region at the times the hummingbirds first arrive and when the young leave the nest and when they migrate south. You need to choose early bloomers for their arrival. You need to have large numbers of bloomers for when they leave the nest and when they fatten up for the southern migration. If all you have are bloomers during the nesting season, and they're finished blooming when they leave the nest, you will miss the bulk of the young birds. Here's a task for everyone wanting to choose the right flowers for your garden for next year. Write down when each flower starts and stops blooming. Then at the end of the season separate the ones that attracted the hummingbirds at the key times. Bulk up on them for future years. In this image you can see that many of the flowers are finished, but some are still in bloom. Delphiniums are a spectacular flower in my region. They start in mid to late June and flower right through the southern migration. They should be perfect in many regions that have 2 or 3 broods per season, for the reason that they bloom a bit early, which would take place through 1 or 2 of these broods. Ultimately, stock up on the perennials that are in bloom during the southern migration, as this is when there's an explosion of sightings. Remember that flowers are of vital importance in keeping young hummingbirds around until they solve the feeders. Juvenile Ruby-throated hummingbird. N.E. of Edmonton, Alberta. 2015 |
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