March begins hummingbird season here in the South. Now , I don’t know if y’all are like me, but I am fascinated with hummingbirds. Here are some facts and tips for attracting them to your backyard.
- There are 23 different varieties of hummingbird.
- Ruby-Throated hummingbirds are the most common in the South. Rufous variety is found closer to the coast. Texas attracts Broad-tailed and Calliope varieties as well as the other 2.
- Flapping away at up to 90 beats per second burns up calories fast; to maintain their momentum, hummingbirds need to eat—a lot! To satisfy their speedy metabolisms, these busy birds consume half their body weight in bugs and nectar, feeding every 10-15 minutes and visiting 1,000-2,000 flowers per day
- The Rufous Hummingbird flies 3000 miles from Alaska to Mexico twice a year!
- Hummingbirds are the tiniest birds in the world
- A hummingbird’s heart is 5 times bigger than a human’s in proportion to its body
- A hummingbird breathes 20 times faster than a human
- The hummingbird’s body temperature is 8 degrees higher than a human’s
- Females pick their mates. Males are always brighter colored
- Hummingbird migration has already started along the Gulf Coast and will spread North thru mid to late April.
- A popular “hummingbird garden” would include: Pink begonia, Billy Green fuchsia, Campfire coleus , Strawberry Drop coleus, Margarita sweet potato
- If you are going to put out a feeder NO RED DYES IN YOUR NECTAR!!!! Don’t buy them, don’t do it. A simple home nectar recipe would be: 1/4 cup refined white sugar <Please do use refined white sugar. Honey can promote dangerous fungal growth. Organic, natural, and raw sugars contain levels of iron that could be harmful. Plain white table sugar is sucrose, which, when mixed with water, very closely mimics the chemical composition of natural nectar.>• 1 cup boiling water• Bowl• Spoon
- Change the mixture and clean your feeder at least every 6 days. If the temperature crawls into the low to mid 80s, every 4. Anything over that every 1-2 days
- A Go-Pro or a camera with a timer are great ways to get pics of this amazing bird!
