Hummingbirds are the prettiest of flying creatures. Graceful and quick, it is an honor to have them floating around in your garden. With a hummingbird food feeder, you can increase the chances of being blessed with their grateful presence often and for longer.
The first step to making a successful hummingbird food feeder is to make the hummingbird food, of course! While hummingbirds do eat insects, these will not be part of the recipe. To attract hummingbirds into your garden you will be making nectar.
To make hummingbird food nectar you will simply need sugar and water. Take one part white granulated sugar and mix with four parts water. Bring this mixture to a boil to dissolve the sugar crystals. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, let it cool. Now you have homemade hummingbird food!
Now once the hummingbird food has cooled, put it into a hummingbird food feeder. Hang the hummingbird food feeder close to a window in your home. This allows for prime hummingbird watching.
Remember that hummingbirds do not have a developed sense of smell and depend solely on their eyesight to find flowers for food. This means that the brighter and louder your hummingbird feeder, the greater the chances are of them coming to it.
Make sure to clean the hummingbird food feeder at least once a week. Use white vinegar for this cleaning purpose to avoid having any traces of detergent ingested by the lovely hummingbirds. If the hummingbird food feeder is not cleaned, the mixture will go bad and the birds will discontinue their visits. To make the hummingbird food last longer, hang the hummingbird feeder in a shady place.
To increase the amount of hummingbirds that visit your area it might help if you have more than one hummingbird feeder. Hummingbirds are territorial so one feeder of hummingbird food will most likely attract one bird at a time.
Another way to get plenty of hummingbirds feeding in your garden is to plant more of the flowers they like best. To make your garden a prime hummingbird food depot, make sure you have lots of bright or colorful blossoms. Again, remember that hummingbirds look for food using their eyesight, so the more eye catching your garden the higher the probability it will become a hummingbird haunt.
Some of the flowers hummingbirds prefer for food seem to be trumpet honeysuckle, hibiscus, clematis, impatiens, hollyhock, and fuchsias. However, hummingbirds are said to be most attracted by blossoms that are red in color. For some reason, this color is quickly identified as a food source for hummingbirds and will commonly be the first blossom they seek out in a garden. Bee balm is a favorite, both for the color and the fact that they are around for most of the year.
To make hummingbird food is simple, and provides everyone with a wonderful service; the sighting of these wondrously beautiful birds. Not only will setting out a hummingbird food feeder make your garden the talk of the neighborhood, it will allow you to witness their splendid beauty as often as possible.
