Feeders,
We had a warm spring day in Kentucky today, and the rain came as well. It’s definitely time to get the weeds out of the flower beds, get the mulch down, and do any planting that we plan on getting done. Should be a good weekend for it.
According to various migration maps, the hummingbirds are crossing the southern border of Kentucky right about now. So I’m revisiting some of my former research on plants that attract hummingbirds, and I have a short list of some hummer favorites here.
Trees and Shrubs: Red Buckeye; Turk’s Cap; Butterfly Bush.
Vines: Coral Honeysuckle; Trumpet Vine; Firecracker Vine; Cardinal Climber.
Perennial Flowers: Cardinal Flower; all Salvia species (perennial sages); Little Cigar.
Annual Flowers: Scarlet Sage; Mexican Sunflower; Shrimp Plant; Fire Spike; Impatients; Fuchsia; Jacobiana; Petunia; Four-O-Clocks.
That’s certainly not a complete list, but these appear to be pretty dependable as hummingbirds’ favorite sources of natural nectar. So, in addition to hanging a feeder or two, trying some of these plants will likely earn some entertaining visits as well as gratitude from the hummingbirds this summer.
Happy Feeding!
Chris
P.S. Have some favorite hummingbird plants? Let us know. And if you do, please state where you live, and feel free to pass along any helpful planting instructions. Thanks!
March 31st, 2006
Whether it’s a distinction of shades or brightness instead of color, the question still stands regarding whether or not bees are more drawn to yellow than … other colors. This appears to be a current topic of interest in many hummer chat rooms, and of course the reason for the question is that most folks (who feed hummingbirds) would prefer that the bees (as well as ants) not frequent their feeders.
Does anybody have actual testing experience to share? On the sales side, I can tell you that we are selling just as many feeders with red petals as we are with yellow. After red, the next favorite color appears to be teal. But this brings me to the more specific question; If bees can’t see color, but yellow attracts them, then what other color have similar qualities of attracting bees?
As for me, I plan to hang various feeders with various petal colors (purple, teal, red and yellow), and I’ll let you know of the results.
Happy feeding,
Chris Whelan
March 27th, 2006
Hello feeders,
Here’s a quick hello to suggest that you take a look at the Hummingbirds.net website. I particularly encourage you to stop by the migration-tracking page and use the form to post your first siting this year. As you can see, they had over 3,700 sitings posted last year, and you can look at previous years to get a sense of consistencies and changes. What a wonderful resource for the appreciation and study of hummingbirds. Here’s a link to the migration-tracking page:http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html
Please participate.
Happy Feeding!
Chris Whelan
March 11th, 2006
