All good wildlife habitats, natural or man-made, takes food, water, shelter, and protected nesting sites into consideration.
Water Source
- Hummers need to bathe regularly. In their natural environment, they use rain and pools of water on rocks and leaves. You can provide a water source with a mister, dripper or bubbler.
Nesting Sites & Materials
- Plant specific plants in the flower garden or landscape for use as hummingbird nesting site and material. Trees and shrubs that bear catkins provide both nesting sites and materials. Catkins are furry flower clusters that provide soft nesting material for the hummingbirds. Trees and shrubs that bear catkins are: Willows, poplars, maple, birch, beech, witch hazel, alder, elm and mulberry. Other plants that offer nesting material include: cattails, milkweed, dandelion and thistle.
- Hang a metal cage filled with nesting material you’ve collected or purchased from a bird store or garden center. Hummingbirds use plant down (from cattail, dandelion, milkweed, etc.) to line their tiny nest which are along with spider webs and lichen.
Food Source
- Offer continuous blooms from nectar-producing flowers. Native plants are good choices, but don’t limit yourself. Hummingbird favorites typically have long, tubular blossoms that are red, orange, yellow or purple.
- The quickest way to provide food is to put up a feeder.
A Place to Perch
- Perches are an important part of a hummingbird’s habitat. Hummingbirds use perches to rest, sun, preen, guard territory, and hunt for insects. A hummer will return to its favored perch often. Hummingbirds will find natural perches in their feeding and nesting area. Typically in openly branched trees, shrubs, and vines.
- Hummers will use perches on feeders, the top of a shepherd’s hook, a clothesline, etc. You can add supplemental perches by wrapping a wire around an existing branch to make a thin offshoot or using wire to attach a branch to a feeder pole.
- Place supplemental perches near their favorite flowers and feeders, and where they have enough room to take flight quickly and easily. If you offer a water mister, place a perch near it to provide a convenient perch for preening and sunning as their feathers dry.