Tips for Creating Your Own Hummingbird Sanctuary

Attract hummingbirds to your backyard, start a hummingbird sanctuary,  and reap many neighborhood benefits from this keystone species.

What is a hummingbird sanctuary?

A hummingbird sanctuary is a hummingbird feeding area designed to support a small community of hummingbirds in order to attract them to the area for mutual benefit. Typical hummingbird sanctuaries have many hummingbird feeders as well as certain plant species, which cater to the needs of hummingbird populations. 

Top Tips & Tricks - How to Create a Hummingbird Sanctuary of Your Own

1. Find hummingbird feeders that are easy to clean and refill. 

• If you are going to spend time keeping your local hummingbirds happy, make it easy on yourself by getting a feeder that is easy to clean and refill. 

• I would suggest the plastic ones over the more aesthetic glass ones for this purpose, as most will require a bottle cleaner to clean sufficiently. If you can find a wide-mouthed glass feeder, that would be the best of both worlds. 

2. Find hanging locations that are in different areas. 

•  I made this mistake for awhile, I had a tree and I hung all my feeders off of it. There would be no problem with this if you have a variety of feeders for different birds, which I also had; but I also had several hummingbird feeders on the same tree. It is better to have them in different areas so the smaller hummingbirds have a chance to outwit the stronger hummingbirds guarding their food territory. 

• This helps keep your hummingbird populations stronger over the time, and helps create an even playing field as they play king of the hill with the different feeders.

3. Plant plants that attract hummingbirds.

•  This is a great supplement for when you forget to fill your feeders, plus they will prefer them when they are in season. 

• This helps keep your hummingbirds healthy and attract new hummingbirds to the area. 

Some plants that hummingbirds enjoy are:

3. 1. 1. Cats Claw

      2. Birds Of Paradise

      3. Trumpet Vine

      4. Arugula (they eat the flowers)

      5. Aloe Vera

      6. Purple Sage

4. Have a landscape that attacts small bugs. 

•  Hummingbirds are aerial masters and can capture a variety of small flying insects with ease to supplement their diet. Create a few areas in different locations that help produce small bugs for them.

  • I tend to leave my grass a bit long and don't cut it immediately. 

  • I also put food scraps in nearby garden with worms; the worms attract other birds.

  • I also have a small compost bin

  • All these are located in different areas of my yard

** It also helps if your yard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat, as not using pesticides helps create a healthy supply of bugs for the hummingbirds as well. 

Things that can help attract bugs to your yard are:

4. 1. 1. Compost piles

      2. Animal manure

      3. Quality soil

      4. Healthy lawns

      5. A water source, storing water in the soil

      6. Small lights at night

5. Use a combination of sugars, but primarily use normal refined sugar. 

• Refined white sugar is the sugar type that most closely resembles the sugar found in flowers.

• Unrefined sugar contains other things that spoil.

  • The spoilage is bad for hummingbirds, if they consume it.

  • Over time, iron found in raw sugar can build up in the hummingbird and cause complications.

  • Organic Raw sugar and sugar cane does contain healthy nutrients for hummingbirds, but should not be the primary source of nutrition or food as it could be unhealthy for hummingbirds over time.

  • Recommend using smaller feeder for the few times you put organic sugar cane out

Why create a hummingbird sanctuary?

Hummingbirds are amazing creatures with unique flight capabilities as well as benefits to humans. They are wonderful creatures to spectate and marvel over. By creating a hummingbird sanctuary, you and your friends can enjoy them by watching them interact together and fly around your yard. In addition to having this flight spectacle to observe, the main benefit to having hummingbirds around is that they are insectivorous birds that prey on certain small insects such as gnats, mosquitoes, small beetles, true bugs, mites, leafhoppers, flying ants, weevils, flies, aphids, and parasitic wasps.  Having them in the area can mitigate pest problems and contribute to the health of local gardens.

How to create a hummingbird sanctuary?

The first step is to purchase several hummingbird feeders. Glass and metal ones are preferred for their longer life and aesthetics, however they are a little more expensive than the plastic ones.  If you are low on money or prefer to design your own, you can engage in a small project and make your own. There are a few websites and videos that demonstrate simple methods on how to make them. Disperse the hummingbird feeders throughout a visible section of your yard. Even if they seem to be in hard to find places, the hummingbirds will find them, given there is enough room to fly around to them.  This next piece of advice may seem obvious, but always keep them filled with natural brewed sugar water or brewed nectar, else there is a possibility the family of hummingbirds will move on searching for another consistent food supply. The next additional step is optional. That is to plant the certain species of plants that cater to hummingbird needs. These plants provide a natural source of nectar that the hummingbirds can access. There are many of them most having the common characteristic of a long flower so the bill of the hummingbird can fit in and drink the nectar from.  If you are planning a garden or new landscaping, check out some of those plants and keep them in mind; and before buying them, make sure they will grow in your climate.