Hummingbird-Friendly Gardening

Ruby throated hummingbird perched on branch

CREDIT: KATHRIN SWOBODA

Hummingbirds are an important part of our native ecosystem, and you can help them in your own garden!

Learn how you can provide hummingbirds with the habitat essentials they need to survive. By providing essentials in your outdoor space, you may even be eligible to have your garden recognized as a Certified Wildlife Habitat®!

Food | Water | Cover | Places to Raise Young | Sustainability

Food for Hummingbirds

You may already know that hummingbirds like to visit flowers to eat sugary nectar, but did you know that they eat other things too? In fact, according to Doug Tallamy, nectar only makes up 20% of what hummingbirds eat, with insects being the other 80%! These insects are especially important for their rapidly growing young, who need the fats and proteins these insects provide. Some hummingbirds have even been seen drinking the sap from trees or sweet juices from fruit!

Hummingbird eating nectar from red flower

CREDIT: NATALLY KLARIC

One of the best ways you can support hummingbirds is by planting native flowers that serve as a nectar source and habitat for insects. Red, tube-shaped flowers are known to provide the best quality nectar for hummingbirds!

These same native plants will also support local insect populations, which will then become food for hummingbirds too!

Learn more about these topics here:

Hummingbird Feeder

Water for Hummingbirds

Even though hummingbirds obtain liquid from the nectar they eat, they also use water sources for a drink or to bathe! This can be especially important in the hot, dry summer months. Hummingbirds like to have somewhere to perch and drink water, like the edge of a bird bath.

Anna's hummingbird perched on garden bubbler fountain

CREDIT: SANDRINE BIZIAUX SCHERSON

Learn more about these topics here:

Bird Bath

Ponds

Cover for Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds will use cover to protect themselves from wind and extreme weather. One of the best ways you can provide this cover is to ensure your garden has trees and shrubs. Choosing species that are native to your area also helps support insects, which in turn become food for hummingbirds and their young!

Places for Hummingbirds to Raise Their Young

Unlike some birds, hummingbirds do not make their nests in birdhouses. Instead, they look for trees and shrubs that provide a well-sheltered branch for their nest building. It’s even better if these shrubs and trees are native species, which will support insects that hummingbirds eat and feed their young!

Two hummingbird chicks in nest with adult hummingbird perched on the side of the nest

CREDIT: NATALLY KLARIC

Hummingbirds collect found materials like twigs and spider silk to build their nests and use moss and lichens to camouflage them. Since their nests are both very small and well camouflaged, they can be easy to miss. Gardeners should be cautious about doing any pruning during a hummingbird’s nesting season and should double check to make sure any branches they prune do not hold a hummingbird nest! Often, parent hummingbirds will become aggressive near their nest and may dive-bomb you if you get too close. If you see this behavior, be sure to check for nests!

As a reminder, hummingbirds are typically migratory, which means even if you see hummingbirds in your garden, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are in their breeding range.

Sustainable Practices to Benefit Hummingbirds

There are many sustainable practices you can use in your garden to support hummingbirds. Since hummingbirds depend on insects as a food source, especially for their babies, avoiding pesticides is a good first step! Also consider turning off lights at night during their migration period.

Learn more about these topics here:

Turn Off the Lights
Avoiding Pesticides

Hummingbird FAQs

The best flowers for hummingbirds are plants that are native with red, tube-shaped flowers.

Here’s Why:

Native: Making sure the plants you choose are native is important for a few key reasons. First, native hummingbirds are well-adapted to these plants since they are native to the same area/range. In fact, some of the cultivated non-native flowers you find at big box stores don’t even provide nectar for hummingbirds, making them pretty…but also pretty useless when it comes to providing food. Second, native plants also support local insect populations, like caterpillars, which in turn become food for hummingbirds, especially hatchlings!

Red: Most flowers that have evolved alongside hummingbird pollinators are red. This is because birds are visually sensitive to red hues, while many competing pollinators, like bees, can’t see red! This doesn’t mean they won’t also visit flowers of other colors, but providing native, tube-shaped flowers that are also red in color is a good bet!

Tube-shaped: Hummingbirds’ long, slender beaks are well-adapted to get nectar from these tube-shaped flowers making them a favorite of hummingbirds.

You likely have a few plant species native to your region that provide blooms that are tube-shaped, red or both! A common selection for hummingbird gardens is the or .

Yes! Hummingbirds are great pollinators. They can visit over a thousand flowers a day, drinking sugary nectar to fuel their speedy metabolisms. As they visit flowers, they spread pollen from bloom to bloom, pollinating plants!

Like so many other wildlife species, hummingbirds are losing their habitat due to housing, road, and business developments. This means that how you care for your garden matters. The tips on this page are geared to provide all the habitat essentials that hummingbirds need to survive and reproduce, supporting their populations at this critical time.

Most hummingbird species do migrate south for the winter, but exactly when they are in your area depends on the hummingbird species and your location! Check out these hummingbird species and click to learn more about their range.

Yes! Hummingbirds are easily attracted to a small space or container garden. Whether you’re gardening on a balcony, courtyard, or small green space, if you plant the right flowers, hummingbirds are likely to visit your garden!

Learn more about small space and container gardening here!

Yes! While hummingbirds are best known for drinking nectar from flowers, they need to eat insects to get a good source of fat and protein. Insects are especially important for hummingbird babies, who can’t eat nectar until they can fly!

You can support hummingbirds by planting native species which support insect populations. Don’t forget to avoid the pesticides too, as these will negatively impact the insects and hummingbirds!

No, hummingbirds do not typically use bird houses for their nests. Instead, they look for trees and shrubs that provide a well sheltered branch for their nest building. Learn more about supporting nesting spaces for hummingbirds here!

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