What plants do hummingbirds like?

Hummingbirds have a high metabolism and eat twice their body weight in nectar and insects daily. This means that if you know what plants hummingbirds like, you’ll be able to provide a menu that attracts them. The hummingbird’s favorite flowers are red and tubular, although they also sip from other brightly colored flowers. Good choices include trumpet vine, cardinal flower, various salvias, bee balm, honeysuckle, fuchsia, penstemon, columbine, impatiens, cleome, hibiscus, hollyhock, buddleia, lupine, petunia, flowering tobacco, coral bells, larkspur and foxglove.

Space out hummingbird plants

When planting, leave room between flowers that hummingbirds feed on. The tiny birds hover while feeding and require sufficient room to do so.

Hang hummingbird feeders

Considering the fact that hummingbirds must feed almost continuously, it also helps to hang hummingbird feeders in your garden. Keep the feeders filled with a clean solution of one part sugar to four parts water.

Add water

Hummingbirds gravitate to running, shallow water sources. A flowing fountain or recirculating birdbath gives the hummingbird a chance to hover and sip from the water, as well as bathe. Keep the water clean and locate the fountain or birdbath out in the open. This allows you to get a good view of the hummingbirds. Birds in general won’t visit water sources near dense vegetation, as it could harbor predators.

Provide shelter and nesting sites

Keep hummingbirds in your garden by giving them a place to obtain shelter and nest. The birds gravitate toward a variety of trees, including bottlebrush, willow, eucalyptus and ash. Trees offer locations for bird’s nests, as well as nesting materials.

Leave dead wood

Hummingbirds prefer to perch on dead limbs rather than living ones. When such wood decomposes, it also attracts a variety of insects, which hummingbirds dine on, particularly when they are nesting.