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Common Reasons Why Hummingbirds Aren't Visiting Your Yard
By TIM BUTTERS
Too Hectic
Loud voices, barking dogs, and certain wind chimes will ward off hummingbirds. They can also be scared off by flashing lights and predators like hawks and cats.
Loud voices, barking dogs, and certain wind chimes will ward off hummingbirds. They can also be scared off by flashing lights and predators like hawks and cats.
No Water Features
Water features are attractive to hummingbirds because they like to take a bath to get nectar off them. However, standard bird baths are not shallow enough.
A gentle trickle of water that provides hummingbirds with a wet area is ideal. A fountain that cascades over the edge of a shallow basin or a misty sprinkler is also great.
No Space For Nests
Hummingbirds nest on tree limbs and other small, horizontal surfaces. Lichens, twigs, leaves, plant fibers, and spider webs are their preferred materials.
To encourage nesting, ensure you have diverse shrubbery and small deciduous trees at the edges of your yard. This will provide hummingbirds with the protective cover they need.
Lacking Color
While hummingbirds can’t smell, their keen eyesight is attracted to red, orange, pink, and yellow. These shades have more sucrose, a sugar that’s easy to digest.
Plant a variety of plants in drifts of color that a hummingbird will be drawn to, with a focus on the color red. You can also lure them in with bright red feeders.
Wrong Flowers
Hummingbirds love nectar-rich flowers, especially tubular ones that their long and narrow beaks can access. Petunias or fuschia on a hanging basket makes a good feeding place.
Other popular choices include red columbines, sunflowers, cardinal flowers, delphiniums, trumpet flowers, red hot pokers, zinnias, foxgloves, salvia, and common yarrows.