For your Celebration of National Hummingbird Day
Like most everyone, I’d never heard of National Hummingbird Day but when I saw it promoted on my Facebook feed I decided to use my blog-post day to celebrate the mesmerizing critters I’d been compulsively watching and sometimes videoing in my garden. Below is a sample clip, shortened from the 5+ minutes this guy spent feeding on a patch of ‘Black and Blue’ Salvia. It’s such a thrill to watch up close like this, I’m on a hummingbird high the rest of the day. No drugs required.
(This morning the Salvias were covered with big fat carpenter bees, which are also fun to watch.)
Click anywhere to play.
From the National Hummingbird Day website, I learned that:
- Hummingbirds share the raising of the chicks and males live a lot shorter because they use so much energy in defending their nests. They use a lot of energy in flying and need to rest every 15 minutes, so we must make our gardens hummingbird friendly.
- They are attracted to flowering plants, especially deep-throated flowers, and feed on the nectar for survival. Their reliance on nectar has helped the development of new hummingbird species influenced by the changes in the flowers. The number of species is still growing, but about 360 species of Hummingbirds currently exist. Even with their aggressive nature, as many as 25 different pieces [sic] of Hummingbirds can survive and co-exist in the same place.
- The hummingbird’s size makes them susceptible to being preyed upon or caught in dangerous situations that could be man-made or natural. Some of these threats are pesticides, bad weather, big insects or predators, loss of habitat, and bad feeders, among others.
And from the same source, “5 Interesting Facts about Hummingbirds”:
- They are the only birds that can fly backward.
- They travel alone and don’t migrate in flocks like other species
- Among other names, a flock of hummingbirds is called a bouquet.
- Out of the 360 species of Hummingbirds, 330 are found in North and South America.
- They’re “hangry.” Their vulnerability to starvation causes them to be territorial and aggressive towards each other.
More Hummingbird Magnets in my Garden
The plants in this small space see bee and butterfly action, but hummingbirds focus their frenetic attention on just Salvia and three other plants:
Lantana! This ‘Red Spread’ in particular, which is also loved by butterflies and bees.
I’m also trying ‘Cherry Sunshine’ Lantana this year and while it attracts plenty of other pollinators, hummingbirds seem to shun it. So color really matters!
But hummingbirds sure do love the blooms of these native vines – honeysuckle (Lornicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’) on the left, and crossvine (Bignonia capreolata ‘Tangerine Beauty’). They’re shown here in May; the rest of the season they produce sparse reblooms.
Fortunately, the Salvias rebloom heavily throughout the season, while Lantanas are blooming when I buy them in May and don’t stop until the first frost around Thanksgiving. Why did I ever garden without them?