Attract Winter Hummingbirds: Feeding, Nectar-Rich Blooms (2024)

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Are you looking to attract winter hummingbirds to your garden? With the right food, shelter, and blooms, it’s possible! Whether you’re in an area where hummingbirds stay all year or they migrate through during certain seasons, there are steps that can be taken to help these birds make it through the cold weather.

Feeding them nectar-rich winter bloomers and providing essentials like lighted feeders can ensure they have a safe place of refuge when temperatures drop.

Feed Hummingbirds in Winter

To sweeten your winter garden for hummingbirds, hang a feeder filled with nectar near a red-flowering shrub like daphne. That’ll really tickle their fancy! Use a nectar mix of one part sugar to four parts water, as this matches the sweetness of natural flower nectar that makes up their winter diet.

Clean feeders regularly with vinegar to prevent dangerous mold and keep fresh nectar flowing. Consider a heated feeder or wrap the feeder in insulation to prevent freezing. Outdoor lighting near the feeder will invite more hummingbirds to feed after dark.

Follow these feeding tips, and your winter wonderland will come alive with the magical flutter of hummingbird wings.

Provide Nectar-Rich Winter Bloomers

Plant winter-blooming flowers like mahonias and witch hazels for year-round nectar. Choose flowers that can withstand frost, such as ‘Lionel Fortescue’ mahonia with its frost-proof yellow blooms. ‘Winter Sun’ mahonia has light-yellow, fragrant flowers. Plant winter daphne for its aromatic February flowers.

Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ has cold-hardy, fragrant pink clusters. Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’ bears bright-red flowers around Christmas. Add Grevillea victoriae, an Australian shrub with brilliant scarlet blooms. Let some plants go to seed for winter insects that hummingbirds eat.

Avoid insecticides. Aromatic, scarlet, winter blooms keep nectar flowing when hummingbirds need it most.

Essentials for Attracting Winter Hummingbirds

With winter’s approach, hummingbirds rely on your dedicated efforts. To attract them, employ lit feeders with safe lighting, insulate against freezing, utilize window placement for warmth, rotate indoor feeders, and heed tips like keeping feeders clean and planting winter blooms.

Lighted Feeders

Make sure you install floodlights around those feeders so bright that your neighbors accuse you of trying to signal aliens.

• Nighttime illumination enhances nocturnal attraction.
• Utilize wildlife-friendly LEDs or red/pink incandescents.
• Position lights to prevent overheating nectar.
• Insulate wires and connections from the cold.
• Window feeders let indoor lamps attract after dusk.

The winter garden glows, enticing hummingbirds to zip in for a nightcap at their 24-hour diner.

Proper Insulation

You’ll want to wrap those feeders with insulation materials like bubble wrap to prevent the nectar from freezing on those extra chilly winter nights. Carefully use strips of weatherproofing to keep out the cold. Consider softer heating options for energy efficiency.

Insulation techniques are key for attracting winter birds to the garden. Provide winter habitats with native plants, heated water, and protected shelters. Maintain clean, unfrozen feeders and bird-friendly plants. Thoughtful gardens sustain wildlife through winter.

Window Feeders

You could set up window feeders to give hummingbirds extra heat from indoors. Place the feeder within a foot of the glass so curious hummingbirds can easily find the nectar. Watch the entertaining antics of these winter visitors drawn to the movement and warmth indoors.

With a well-stocked feeder, flowering plants, and insect-friendly practices, you’ll enjoy winter hummingbirds thriving in the cold.

Use of Indoor Feeders

Bringing the feeders inside lets us share warmth and joy through the coldest nights. Placing feeders near windows exposes birds to indoor heat while allowing them to feed. Cleaning and refilling indoor feeders daily provides a steady nectar supply when freezing temperatures or snow would make outdoor feeding difficult.

Observing their behavior and plumage up close delights us. Varying feeder styles caters to different species’ preferences, ensuring every hummingbird feels nourished and welcome indoors.

Tips for Feeding Winter Hummingbirds

Rather than trimming or spraying, let nature’s bounty nourish our cherished visitors. As fall’s foliage surrenders to winter’s chill, maintain clean feeders daily and position vibrant blossoms to nourish migrating hummingbirds.

Allow gardens to foster nourishing insects. Epilobium angustifolium’s scented trumpets and Aquilegia formosa’s nodding blooms entice insects and hummingbirds alike. Wherever feasible, incorporate the hue of Mahonia aquifolium’s cheery flowers. Ribes sanguineum’s pendulous clusters and Solidago canadensis’s plumed spires sustain migrants amid seasonal change.

History of Winter Hummingbirds

Fittingly, this avian enchantment evolved over time from sporadic sightings to steadfast devotion. Winter hummingbirds were once a marvel, with vagrants straying far from their normal migratory paths. Now hundreds overwinter in gardens stocked with nectar feeders and non-native plants.

However, climate change disrupts long-held patterns. Many factors impact populations of these tiny travelers, including:

1. Loss of native plant habitat
2. Light pollution confusing navigation
3. Increasing competition at feeders
4. Extremes of weather during migration
5. Fewer insects available due to pesticides

Conservation requires protecting native plants, reducing light pollution, and creating gardens with food and shelter. With care, we can provide for these petite pioneers while respecting their wild nature.

Winter Hummingbirds and Native Plants

You can make your garden irresistible to hummingbirds year-round by planting native flowers and shrubs that provide nectar or harbor insects during key seasons. Late winter into early spring, look to early blooming maples, currants, honeysuckles, and willows, while coreopsis, monarda, and agastache are hummingbird magnets in summer and autumn when many spring ephemerals fade.

Late Winter/Early Spring

You’d now do well to seek as the sun shines bright, earlier scented blooms that sate tiny beaks. February’s dreary drizzle dampens spirits longing for the sun’s warmth. Yet determined gardeners know, persevere we must, that verdant blossoms will herald hummingbirds’ return from southern climes.

Penstemons, twining honeysuckles, native currants offer sustenance as strengthening light fuels migration’s growing energies. Patient provisions ensure flourishing numbers brighten our burgeoning beds and blush with bejeweled birds.

Though late winter challenges, believe; soon we’ll revel when rufous ruby throats race to red trumpet’s nectar.

Summer and Autumn

Perhaps you’ll sow vibrant hues amid fragrant blooms this autumn, inviting winged joys to linger.

• Salvias for nectar before migration
• Asters and sedums for late flowers
• Leave seed heads for winter food
• Clean feeders weekly to prevent mold

As hummingbirds prepare for migration or overwintering, a welcoming habitat provides essential nourishment. Thoughtful garden design and diligent care invite these wondrous companions to thrive.