[Roll With It]

Good morning Villagers! I am trying to attract hummingbirds to my yard. Do any of you see hummingbirds in your yard? If so, what is attracting them? I have never seen a hummingbird and it's on my bucket list. Thank you in advance for your help.

[Bill32]

We have some from time to time, try a google search for plants that attract...

[bagboy]

Originally Posted by Roll With It

Good morning Villagers! I am trying to attract hummingbirds to my yard. Do any of you see hummingbirds in your yard? If so, what is attracting them? I have never seen a hummingbird and it's on my bucket list. Thank you in advance for your help.

We have tried feeders without much success. We get an occasional hummingbird near our Mexican Petunias. To attract them consistently, my guess is to plant the flowers and shrubs that have been shown to draw them.

[Jima64]

although it might seem like fun to place your feeder up near your back porch you might want to give the birds some space. I have one close and one farther away and the farther one is where they will feed. the numbers have been down the past two years for us. never a lot anyway. remember most are migrating birds except for I believe two species native to Florida.

[Topspinmo]

Rarely see one up by Lopez, maybe seen two in five years I’ve been here, when my bushes blooms I see some hummingbird moths on them.

[FenneyFanatic]

Hummingbirds love my bottlebrush tree..

[tophcfa]

I could be wrong on this, but in general I don’t think hummingbirds spend lots of time in the Villages area. They definitely stop by the area during migration. In the winter hummingbirds commonly go further south, often to South America and the Caribbean and during the winter they go further north. We have migratory humming birds at our home in the Berkshires from early May through mid September. Our first little friends showed up last week, but are now wishing they waited a little longer because it has been unseasonably cold. We were very worried about them last Friday night when it got to the low 20’s with strong winds and snow flurries, but they made it through it. I think all the sugar water my wife puts out for them helped give them the energy to hunker down and make it through the cold stretch.

[juneroses]

Ruby throat hummers first make their appearance in my Villages garden in the first half of March and continue to visit until sometime in the fall. Among the plants they favor are:

Coral honeysuckle (lonicera sempervirens)-NOT the invasive japanese honeysuckle
Firebush (hamelia patens)
Tropical sage (salvia coccinea)-red, pink or white; self seeds
Shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana)
Autumn sage (salvia greggii): despite the name, it blooms for 3 seasons
Anise scented sage (salvia guaranitica)-many named varieties
Orange Flame (justicia chrysostephana)-an orange pompom on glossy quilted foliage
Firespike (odontonema strictum)-red spikes appear in late summer
Tall red pentas-sometimes called heirloom pentas; frequently a passalong or obtain from a plant nursery; mine easily grew 4’ tall
“David Verity” cuphea-taller than “Vermillionaire”
“Vermillionaire” cuphea – a hummer favorite in my yard; good plant size for near the lanai where you can watch them nectar and still
see into the yard
Candy corn plant: Cuphea micropetala – flower looks like those of the two cupheas mentioned above but I found the plant grew
much bigger than either (too big for my purposes)
Firecracker plant (russelia equisetiformis)

The above are plants with which I have had personal success. I know there are others.

I gave up on feeders...the hummers preferred the plants. I’ve had up to 4 in the yard but they’re territorial and don’t like to share. On multiple occasions I’ve watched one sitting on the branch of a tree, just waiting for an invader to dare descend on the salvia for a snack. With a quick dive toward the offender they’re off, twittering and fussing. And then the guard hummer returns to his perch on the limb and waits.

[Joelack99]

There is a trick to the feeders. Since we learned it we have the ruby throated ones much more frequently. It needs to be red, of course, that stands out to them, hung several feet from the house, preferably in partial shade—and you need to feed them the right stuff: plain white sugar dissolved in boiling water—1 cup sugar in 4 cups water—then chilled—keeps a week or two in the fridge. The real trick is changing the nectar out every couple of days when the weather is hot, cleaning the feeder thoroughly so no mold grows in it. Fermented nectar or mold will make them very sick so don’t bother if you can’t keep up with it. If you can, it’s worth it. We only put out a quarter to half a cup at a time, and keep changing it.

Ants will go for it too. You can pick up “ant moats” at Lowes.

[davem4616]

humming birds are truly a joy to attract....other posts have given you ideas on the plants that will attract them...make sure that the humming bird feeder liquid is red...we had luck placing the feeder in the shade near the plants that would attract them

good luck....they do make a lot of noise if it's only a screen that is between you and them

[polaris]

Audubon Society recommends not adding color to make the nectar red. The birds don’t need the unnecessary chemicals. Most feeders have red parts which attract the birds. The nectar should just be sugar and water in the 1:4 sugar/water ratio mentioned above.

[Slapnut]

They are attracted to a plant called fire bush. You can get these at home depot garden department or Lowe's. Or you can try some landscaping companies

[Donnie&Viv]

We would have them regularly during certain periods of time. They came and feed on our Mexican Petunias.

[PugMom]

i've seen them in our end of town.sometimes they're so tiny they can be mistaken for a large bug, lol. a lady a few streets away has the plastic type feeder you put nectar in, & it works for her. good luck!!

[thevillager1988]

We were thrilled to see one fluttering around our firecracker plant!