Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Prepping for Hummingbirds

Perky-Pet Red Antique Bottle Glass Hummingbird Feeder
Wild Birds Unlimited Pagoda High Perch Hummingbird Feeder
Droll Yankees Happy Eight 2 Hummingbird Feeder
Duncraft Hummerfest Feeder & Weather Guard

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are on the way north, along with Broad-tails, Black-chins, Costas, Calliopes, and Rufous Hummingbirds – the primary stars of hummingbird feeders and gardens across the continent! Are you ready for migrating hummingbirds to arrive? Have you given thought to a new feeder to start the season off? Or adding a new array of flowering plants to attract hummers? Let’s make sure we have all the bases covered as we await spring’s biggest backyard day – the day the first hummingbirds arrive.

While many Southern California birders are watching for migrating Rufous Hummingbirds at their year-round feeders and flower gardens, they are also appreciating the peak nesting season of Anna’s and Allen’s Hummingbirds, species that stay in urban areas year-round. Then too, Arizona and southern Texas have their year-round hummers in select sites. Nonetheless, the rest of the West Coast, the Great Basin, Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and everywhere east of the Mississippi River are gearing up for the return of their hummingbirds! (Will they have a Spanish accent after spending the fall and winter seasons in Mexico or Central America?)

Make sure your hummingbird feeders are cleaned, give them an extra rinse with clean water, then fill them with sugar-water nectar and wait for the first migrants to respond. Spring migration can be an exciting time at hummingbird feeders, with migrating birds stopping in for a short visit, and some hummers waiting it out with the idea of setting up a territory for nesting. It interesting to study the behavior, and appreciate the journeys these micro-birds are making.

You can actually follow the northward migration of different species of hummingbirds on a national level, and zoom in to the state and local level – even down to your street – to see when the first hummingbirds might arrive. But don’t wait too long, they can literally appear overnight. To monitor Perky-Pet’s Hummingbird Migration Map, please see the link provided at the end of this article.

It’s hard to plan to have your yard’s flowering plants ready to greet migrating hummers with the hope of attracting them to stay, but you can probably buy some greenhouse-grown flowering plants – it’s easy to keep them in a pot to move them where you want to attract hummingbirds, likely near a window or windows where you can see any action they attract. Tubular flowers seem to be best, especially red, orange, and yellow colored flowers. Trumpet vine, bee balm, cardinal flowers, trumpet honeysuckles, salvia - even red petunias may work well. The good thing is that you can always add, remove, and experiment with different plants – it’s part of the fun!

When you have your yard stocked with one or more choice hummingbird feeders, consider adding one at work, after discussing the idea with the boss. If you are a business owner, you may be surprised how customers and potential customers react to the attraction of a hummingbird feeder in a select location. Anyway, you get the idea: Enjoy the season, enjoy our amazing native hummingbirds, and enjoy your yard!

View the interactive Perky-Pet Hummingbird Migration Map at http://www.perkypet.com/advice/bird-watching/hummingbird-migration and add your hummingbird information too.

And check out some of the amazing varieties of hummingbird feeders offered by some of the best backyard birding supply companies, including:

Perky-Pet at https://www.perkypet.com/perky-pet-red-antique-bottle-glass-hummingbird-feeder-8119-2

Wild Birds Unlimited at https://order.wbu.com/shop/bird-feeders/hummingbird-feeders

Droll Yankees at http://drollyankees.com/product/happy-eight-2-hummingbird-feeder/

Duncraft at https://www.duncraft.com/Hummerfest-Feeding-Station

Share your backyard birding experiences and photos at editorstbw2@gmail.com