It’s time for the hummingbirds to make their way back to the region, and here’s how you can welcome them.
They deserve a little hospitality: Hummingbirds are remarkable little creatures — they’re generally only about 3.5 inches long, and when they’re hovering over a flower they flap their wings at a rate of about 50 times a second, the Audubon Society said. They fly at between 20 and 30 mph, and even more during “courtship dives.”
The birds work hard to get here every year, generally arriving in the first half of April: The Fairfax County Master Gardeners website said they fly up from Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean — almost 1,000 miles — to make it back to the Mid-Atlantic. That includes crossing the 500-mile Gulf of Mexico in one shot. (Some go even farther, up to New England and even Canada.)
They fuel up for that flight by eating about twice their weight, and about every 15 minutes, the week before their trip. They need it. While flying, “they are always on the brink of starvation,” the gardeners said.
When the males (which you can mainly distinguish by their bright orange throats during mating season) get here, they jostle for territory, feeders, and flowers.
The eastern U.S. is the largest breeding ground for ruby-throated hummingbirds, which are the only ones that breed in this area. The females raise their young on their own, in nests that start about the size of a thimble and grow to 2 inches wide when the fledglings start growing. Nests generally are built in trees such as oaks, birches, and sometimes pines.
Hummingbirds eat nectar from a variety of plants, including trumpet creepers, azaleas, rose of Sharon, and columbine, They also eat spiders, gnats, and aphids.
How to Attract Hummingbirds
A hummingbird feeder will bring the birds to your yard — hang it in a shady spot so the nectar doesn’t heat up too much, the gardeners said. You can buy the nectar that goes into it, but you can also make your own by boiling four parts water with one part sugar and letting it cool. The commercially available stuff is often red, but yours doesn’t have to be. Clean it and change the water every three to four days and make sure cats can’t get at it.
Hummingbirds will especially appreciate the hospitality in August and September when they start bulking up for the flight back down south. (They also really dig cardinal flowers, which bloom at that time of year.)
Assuming they survive — it’s hard out there for a little bird — they’ll repeat the process each year. They’re generally thought to live around three to five years.
Feature image by Yuval Helfman/stock.adobe.com
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