Birdfeeders

As I am wishing spring would come, I started looking forward to the return of lots of hummingbirds. I am always curious about the lives of these fascinating little birds, so looked up some interesting facts. I did not know that hummingbirds only exist in the Western Hemisphere - all 338 species of them. In the U.S. there are only 16 kinds, many of which only visit the extreme southwest of the country. Hummers are very loyal to feeding sites, so if you had lots of them visit your hummingbird feeders last year, chances are quite good they will return this year. If last year’s turn out was disappointing, there are things you can do to encourage more visitors. We all know how much they love red, so planting some red nectar rich flowers will certainly help. Male hummers are very territorial, so many people have found that having multiple hummingbird feeders allows more birds to feed in your yard. When we added a second hummingbird feeder to our yard, there was an immediate increase in the number of hummers we saw. The most important thing to remember is to keep all hummingbird feeders clean with fresh nectar. If a hummingbird gets a taste of fermented nectar, it will stay away from the offending feeder for a long time.