WHAT FLOWERS ATTRACT RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS?
NECTAR NATION | INSIDE THE NUMBERS 2020-2022
The patio’s annual container garden features eight salvia, several ‘other’ species of flowers and three feeders filled with homemade sugar water.
Each container is numbered, placed in the same location each season and observations are recorded in a spreadsheet.
The species-specific salvia (shown below) is the annual Rockin’ Blue Suede Shoes, by Proven Winners.
The ‘other’ flowers consist of a variety of colorful verbena, lantana, celosia, zinnia and a mandevilla.
The feeder’s homemade sugar water consists of 4 parts water to 1 part sugar.
The ruby-throated hummingbirds are attracted to almost anything with nectar but some definitely do better than others. Color does not appear to have as much influence as size and shape does.
HOW MANY HUMMINGBIRDS VISIT PER YEAR?
SIGHTINGS 2020-2022
DO HUMMINGBIRDS PREFER FEEDERS OR FLOWERS?
After three years of observation on the patio, the hummingbirds preferred the flowers by a large margin, visiting them 10,956 times while visiting the feeders just 841 times.
SIGHTINGS, FLOWERS AND FEEDERS VISITED 2020-2022
WHAT IS THE RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS FAVORITE FLOWER?
Salvia, specifically, the annual variety named Rockin’ Blue Suede Shoes, by Proven Winners is the drink of choice, at least at this patio.
There are eight salvias, a variety of “other” plants such as lantana, verbena, zinnias and three nectar feeders.
Salvia number three, shown in the above map, holds the single season visit record – logging 678 visits in 2021.
SALVIA VS OTHER FLOWERS VS FEEDERS
WHAT MONTH DO THE MOST HUMMINGBIRDS VISIT?
The earliest visitor has been May 2, the latest visitor has been September 27 and July has always been the busiest with some days logging over 100 visits.
MONTHLY SIGHTINGS 2020-2022
HOW MANY MALE HUMMINGBIRDS VISIT?
This gets a little trickier to answer as a juvenile male looks a lot like an adult female. The male does not develop a full ruby red gorget until after a year. There are times where you can see some minor red appearing but for the observational statistics, only males with full gorgets were tracked.
The males, when they do make a rare appearance, do so at ISO40000 filthy lighting, well after last call. But, appearances are trending upward!