Backyard ‘hummers,’ not by sugar alone

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

With our wonderful climate here in Huntington Beach, we’re able to

enjoy hummingbirds year-round. Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds breed

locally, and black-chinned hummingbirds migrate through.

It’s easy to attract these beautiful birds to your yard or balcony

so you can enjoy them at close range. All you need is a hummingbird

feeder.

Hummingbirds can fly forward at 50 to 60 mph or come to a dead

stop and hover like a helicopter. These can fly straight up, down, or

even backward. These acrobatics take an incredible amount of energy.

Offering sugar water in a feeder provides a source for that energy,

and is one way to attract hummingbirds.

Hummingbird feeders are generally either of the basin or bottle

type. Key qualities to look for when selecting a feeder are ease of

cleaning and lack of dripping. However, there is no need to limit

yourself to one type of feeder. Having several scattered throughout

the yard brings in more birds and cuts down on territorial battles.

Even though there are multiple ports on the feeders, hummers will

fight over who gets to use them. Putting out several feeders spaced

about 10 feet apart can help reduce the squabbling.

Ants can be a problem at hummingbird feeders. They march down the

hanger and crawl into the feeder to get to the sugar. There they can

drown by the hundreds, contaminating the feeder and necessitating

more frequent cleaning. Putting Vaseline on a short section of the

hanger is a good way to keep the ants out of the nectar.

Making hummingbird nectar is so simple even a husband can do it.

Add a half cup of sugar to two cups of water and bring to a boil. But

be sure to let it cool to room temperature before you put it out for

the birds, or you’ll risk burning their tongues.

When feeding hummingbirds, cleanliness is really important.

Feeders can grow black mold in a twinkling, so we rinse our feeders

out with a dilute bleach solution before refilling them. Needless to

say, it’s important to thoroughly rinse out the bleach before putting

the nectar in.

Two common myths persist about feeding hummingbirds. One is that

you have to add red food coloring to the water and the other is that

honey is good for hummingbirds. Wrong on both counts. The red on the

feeder is all it takes to attract the birds. Honey can actually harm

hummers by supporting fungal growth on their tongues, so don’t put it

in the feeders either.

Although sugar water is a good way to attract hummingbirds to your

yard, the birds can’t live on sugar alone. This comes as a surprise

to many, but hummingbirds need protein as well. Hummers enjoy aphids,

gnats, leafhoppers and other small insects that live in the garden.

When they’re raising their young, their demand for insects goes way

up, so it’s beneficial to have nesting hummingbirds in your yard.

At least one of the Anna’s hummingbirds that visits our yard has

learned to raid the insects caught in the webs of orb-weaving garden

spiders. Hummingbirds also use spider webs to make their nests. So

allowing spiders to live in the yard is good for hummers.

If you are into strange ways of attracting hummingbirds, you can

split a banana in half and put it onto a feeder designed to hold

fruit for orioles. The banana will draw fruit flies in no time, and

the hummers will feed on the tiny flies. And you know what they say

about time and fruit flies. Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies

like a banana.

Installing a leaf mister is a good way to entertain your

hummingbirds, if you’re into that sort of thing. They love to play in

falling water. They’ll come up to a water spray, hover and chatter at

it with great intensity, then take a quick bath in the water

droplets.

At this point, you’re probably asking yourself where you can get

all of these esoteric things. Finding a simple hummingbird feeder is

fairly easy since many garden centers carry them. But finding misters

and oriole feeders is a bit harder. Fortunately, our problems in this

area will soon be solved. A Wild Birds Unlimited store is coming to

town.

Jan Smith hopes to open her store in Newland Center near

Albertsons in late July. Right now, we have to drive to Mission Viejo

or Yorba Linda to find a wild bird specialty store that stocks

supplies for attracting wild birds. We are really excited that Smith

has chosen Huntington Beach for her new store. Wild Birds Unlimited

will offer a large selection of feeders for hummingbirds and many

other kinds of birds as well. If you have never visited a Wild Birds

Unlimited store, you’ll be amazed at the many different ways in which

you can improve the habitat in your yard to make it more attractive

to hummingbirds and many other bird species as well.

We’ll keep you posted on Smith’s progress in getting her store

through the planning and permitting process. We’ve heard from many

sources that opening a business in Huntington Beach can be more

difficult than in neighboring communities. We’re glad that Smith is

persevering. We look forward to having a Wild Birds Unlimited store

in our town soon.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].