Get prepared: It is time for hummingbirds to return

What a joy to see the variety of birds that come to my bird feeders and suet baskets each day! As the temperatures warm and the day length increases, more birds will return from their winter migration locations. At the beginning of April, when the spring flowers begin to bloom, it is time to prepare for the return of the hummingbirds by adding a hummingbird feeder filled with sugar water to my collection of bird feeders and suet baskets. At the end of September each year, I remove the hummingbird feeder because the hummingbirds are departing for their long migration journey to their winter feeding grounds in Mexico and Central America.

The males leave first, followed by the females two weeks later. Because hummingbirds depend on nectar for survival, they are not attracted to my feeders filled with black sunflower seeds. Most hummingbird feeders are red because hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers. Store-bought, pre-made nectar can be used to fill your feeder, or you can make your own. Tips for creating your own hummingbird nectar include:

• Make a mixture of 4 parts water to 1 part sugar.

• Boil the water and add the sugar stirring until the sugar dissolves.

• Do not add red dye! There is no research that proves red dye is safe for hummingbirds.

• Clean the feeder with soap and water and rinse thoroughly.

• After the sugar solution cools, add it to the feeder.

• Store the extra solution in the refrigerator.

• To prevent mold, clean the feeder every other day, rinse thoroughly to remove any soap residue, and add fresh nectar.

A suggestion: you might want to add two hummingbird feeders and, if possible, space them several feet apart. Last summer, I observed whenever two hummingbirds arrived at my feeder, only one bird would place its long beak into the feeder to obtain the nectar water. In fact, the male hummingbird at the feeder was aggressively signaling the other hummingbird to leave the area near

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the feeder. Male hummingbirds are small but they are also very territorial!

To attract hummingbirds to your garden, add some native flowers such as cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Eastern columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), or jewelweed (Impatiens capensis) to your garden. Other excellent additions are native vines such as trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans) or coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). Avoid using insecticides, as insects are also important to their diet and provide a source of protein needed for these active birds.

Hummingbird identification is easy. Why? There is only one species of hummingbird that spends its mating and nesting season in Georgia, the ruby-throated hummingbird (Archilochus colubris).

Because hummingbirds are small, get out your binoculars in order to distinguish between the male and female hummingbirds. The male, as in most birds, is the most colorful and has a ruby throat and iridescent green back. The female is also beautiful with her iridescent green back, but instead of a ruby throat, she has a white throat speckled with a few grey dots.

Here are some interesting facts about ruby-throated hummingbirds:

• They only weigh 2 to 3 grams, the equivalent of 2 to 3 paper clips.

• They are one of the smallest birds in Georgia.

• They must consume half of their body weight in nectar each day to maintain their high metabolism.

• Their heart beats 1,260 times per minute.

• They breathe 250 times per minute.

• They are the only birds that can fly backwards.

• Males do not participate in making the nest or feeding the young. After mating, the male abandons the female and looks for another mating opportunity.

• The female constructs a nest out of plant material and spider webs and camouflages the nest by gluing lichen to the exterior.

• Almost without exception, the female lays two tiny white eggs in her nest.

• The incubation and fledging periods take about one month. The eggs are incubated by the female for 12-14 days. After hatching, the female feeds the young for 14-18 days.

Happy gardening!

North Fulton Master Gardeners, Inc. is a Georgia nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization whose purpose is to educate its members and the public in the areas of horticulture and ecology in order to promote and foster community enrichment. Master Gardener Volunteers are trained and certified by The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. Learn more at nfmg.net.

This week’s “Garden Buzz” guest columnist is Carole MacMullan, a master gardener since 2012. Carole describes herself as a born biologist. Since childhood, she loved to explore the out-of-doors and garden with her mother. When she entered college, she selected biology as her major and made teaching high school biology her career for 35 years. After retirement in 2008, she had three goals: to move from Pittsburgh to Atlanta to be near her daughter and granddaughter, to volunteer, and to become a Master Gardener. Shortly after moving, she became involved with the philanthropic mission of the Assistance League of Atlanta (ALA) and in 2012, completed the Master Gardener program and joined the North Fulton Master Gardeners (NFMG) and the Milton Garden Club. Carole uses her teaching skills to create a variety of presentations on gardening topics for the NFMG Lecture Series and Speakers Bureau. She also volunteers weekly at the ALA thrift store and acts as chair of their Links to Education scholarship program. Her favorite hobbies are gardening, hiking, biking, and reading.

For more information

• Stan Tekiela, Birds of Georgia, Second edition, Adventure Publications, 2021, ISBN: 978-1-64755-200-8

• Jon L. Dunn and Jonathan Alderfer, Field Guide to the Birds of America, National Geographic. ISBN: 1-42620071-4, pages 278-9, 82-3.

• Roger Tory Peterson, Peterson Field Guide to Eastern and Western Birds, Seventh Edition, Mariner Books, 2020, ISBN-10 132877143.

• Charles Seabrook, “Male hummingbirds ready for fleeting, flitting romance,” Wild Georgia, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Saturday, April 23, 2022.

•https://site.extension.uga.edu/ paulding/2021/06/creating-ahummingbird-habitat/

•https://avianreport.com/ hummingbird-identification/