Feeding and Attracting Hummingbirds

I love all birds, but my favorite are probably hummingbirds. They are so tiny and cute and very friendly compared to other birds. I have at least three hummingbirds that live in my yard and visit my feeder on a regular basis. 

Here in Northern Indiana we get the Ruby-Throated variety of hummingbirds. The males have a bright reddish-pink patch on their throats and a beautiful green back. The females, like any other bird, are not as pretty as the males. They are usually not as bright of a green and have more brown on them with just a white throat.

Hummingbirds are pretty amazing little creatures. They fly about 27 miles per hour! They are very curious and will buzz right by you, so close that you can almost feel it. Mine also like to watch us almost as much as we like to watch them. Sometimes I will look up and one will be flying stationary and looking in the window at me!

I feed my hummingbirds homemade nectar. You can buy the red stuff at the store, but it's really just so simple and cheap to make it yourself. Plus, there is some debate on whether the red stuff is good for them or not. So I figure, why take the chance? Fresh is always best anyways! Just make sure to always keep a steady supply of food for them and they will keep coming back for more!

All you need to do to make your own nectar is fully combine one part sugar to four parts cold water. That's it! No boiling needed! I have a large feeder so I use 1/2 cup sugar and 2 cups water. These birds like their nectar changed every 3-4 days or whenever it gets cloudy. Mine will tell us when they want fresh!

Also make sure to clean out your feeder each time you refill it. Hummingbirds can get sick and die if the feeder is moldy or too dirty. All we do is rinse it ours out very well with plain old water and wipe off any mold spots. Do not use soaps to clean it as that can make birds sick too.

Almost anyone can get in on the fun of feeding hummingbirds, even if you live in an apartment! I've seen hummingbird feeders that attach to windows or you can hang them from just about anywhere. These birds are very territorial and will keep coming back to the same spot year after year.

Hummingbirds are very friendly and curious creatures. Mine let me get very close to them and they like to buzz us to say hello! I've seen videos of people holding a feeder in their hands and hummingbirds coming right up to them and eating out of their hands. This has happened to my mom once, but not me yet! That's my goal though!

This is one of my female hummingbirds. I have two females and one male (as far as I can tell) that come to my feeder. I see the girls out more than the guy for some reason.

If you have several birds fighting each other off at your feeder, put out another feeder. The more feeders you have, the more birds you will attract.

I just put up a another feeder in my new window box. So far, I've only seen one bird at it once. It will probably catch on better next year. Hummingbirds also feed on flower nectar too.

Hummingbirds like to rest nearby in between feedings, usually in a tree, but sometimes they sit on my tomato cages too! Once, I was gardening and I looked up and came face to face with a hummingbird sitting on a tomato cage. It was pretty cool! We sat there for a little bit staring at each other before it flew off!

This is my male hummingbird. He's a bit harder to photograph. I couldn't get a picture of him head on so you could see his ruby throat, but notice how his back is much more bright green than the females.

Here's a closer picture. They really are very beautiful birds!

Hummingbirds flap their wings about 53 times PER SECOND!

In my area, hummingbirds generally arrive sometime in April and stay throughout Fall. Sometimes birds that are traveling through your area will stop at your feeder on their way to Central America, where they spend the winter.

Happy feeding!

 

My Spring Backyard!

Although it's beginning to fade now, this was my backyard in all it's full Spring glory a couple weeks ago!

I love Spring, but it never seems to last very long! It's such an odd season here in northern Indiana. Some days can be warm and downright balmy and the next day it snows and freezes all your flowers. 

I just try to enjoy Spring as much as possible while it's around! Every time I look out my window and see my creekside garden and all it's beautiful colors, it just makes me so happy! 

My yard is truly my happy place!

This is my beloved creekside garden! Right now, this end of the garden is a bit of everything Spring from the muscari border to the mixed daffodils to hyacinths. There's even a mum starting to sprout in there somewhere! My plan is to keep it a bit of everything and add some tulips and more mums to it this fall. For Summer, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet!

It took me two years to plant this muscari border! I am so glad it's finally done and looking good! Muscari are some of my favorite flowers and I love them as a border. They multiply so quickly that a lot of people don't use them for borders, but I do! The more the merrier, I say!

I love these double yellow daffodils that I planted last fall. These were from a mixed bag of daffodils so I wasn't sure what I was going to get. I am a little disappointed with how they all turned out. There were only about two different kinds in the bag ~ these, and some that had about four teeny tiny flowers on each stem. They were pretty, don't get me wrong, but not quite what the picture promised.

This fall, my goal is to plant tons of plain yellow daffodils at this end a la Martha Stewart! I want it to look like the field of daffodils I visited in Ireland!

My favorite tree in my yard! I think it's a redbud. I am hoping to find another cheap one to plant at the other end of my garden.

Here's my mama bird poking her head out of her house! I've yet to have any bluebirds nest in this bluebird house, just sparrows. But, I love all birds and I am not going to be kicking any out just because they aren't blue. I'm happy that someone is making a home there!

I love all these tiny purple flowers that appear all over my lawn every year!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the yard, my lilacs are finally blooming! About 4-5 years ago, my husband brought home three little sticks that he got from a client of his. They were three different colors of lilacs. They have grown like crazy, but this was the first year we've gotten any blooms and I am so happy! I love lilacs!

Here are the white ones just getting ready to bloom. As of right now, my purple ones have faded away, but these white ones are still going strong! I love their smell!

Here's one of the yellow finches that like to hang out in my yard! They are so pretty!

Happy Spring!

Birds of a feather...

I love birds of any kind and I love to feed them and watch them play. Just like any other animal, birds have their own personalities and are just fascinating to sit and watch. My grandpa has birds that actually come and knock (with their beaks) on his patio door when they want fed! They are amazing creatures!

The other day, before all the snow melted away, I looked out my kitchen window and saw several different kinds of birds having their dinner at my feeders. There were four cardinals, several juncos and sparrows, a woodpecker, and two giant blue jays. All in one day!

I had never seen so many different species of birds in my yard just chillin together so I grabbed my camera and ran back to the window to snap some pics, which scared some off of course, but most of them came right back and I was able to get a few good pictures of them.

The woodpecker likes to hang every which way and eat the suet cakes while the juncos seem to prefer to eat what falls to the ground-or what we throw on the ground.

Here's a rather grainy close up of one of the cardinals - the state bird of Indiana! The males are the bright red, pretty ones. The females are more of a reddish brown color.

Here's a male cardinal sitting in my bird feeder. I love this thing! It looks like those cute vintage chairs I want for myself! I couldn't afford the original so my husband bought me one for my birds.

These Blue Jays were so huge compared to the other birds I normally see at the feeders. They were the first Blue Jays I had seen in years so I was pretty excited to see them.

Looking rather regal sitting in the tree!