Attracting hummingbirds can be a rewarding experience, but it can be frustrating when you put in effort and don’t get the results you wanted. Even with flowers and feeders in place, there are several reasons why hummingbirds aren’t visiting your yard or may leave quickly. Whether it’s the wrong flowers, poor feeder placement, or other overlooked details, understanding what could be keeping them away is the first step to creating a welcoming environment.
In this article, we’ll explore common mistakes that might be preventing hummingbirds from visiting and how to correct them for a yard that’s buzzing with activity.
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Common Mistakes That Keep Hummingbirds Away
If you’re struggling to attract hummingbirds to your yard, these common mistakes could be unintentionally keeping them away, but the good news is they’re easy to fix! Check out this list to make your yard more hummingbird-friendly.
1. Choosing The Wrong Flowers
To attract hummingbirds, you’ll need nectar-producing flowers with the right shape. Hummingbirds are particularly drawn to tubular-shaped flowers because their long, slender beaks and tongues are perfectly suited for accessing the nectar within. In contrast, they tend to avoid flowers with flat or open shapes, wide, flat petals, or densely clustered petals that don’t accommodate their specialized feeding method.
Not all flowers produce nectar, and many that do offer such small amounts that they aren’t worth the hummingbird’s time. Often, these two factors—the hard-to-reach shape and the lack of nectar—go hand in hand.
Examples of flowers that hummingbirds tend to avoid include daisies, sunflowers, poppies, lilacs, irises, roses, tulips, magnolias, marigolds, asters, peonies, chrysanthemums, pansies, and gardenias. While these flowers may attract other pollinators like bees or butterflies, they don’t meet the specific needs of hummingbirds. We can help get you started with these hummingbird-friendly flowers.
2. Poor Feeder Placement
While it is hard to get this wrong, there are still some important tips to consider when positioning your feeder. Blazing, direct sunlight won’t bother the hummingbirds, but it will make your nectar spoil faster. Sitting feeders on the ground or hanging too high (further than you can reach without a stool) is not ideal. Hummingbirds are used to foraging at ‘flower level’, so keep things generally between your knee height and head height and you’ll be fine.
Try to avoid areas right next to a door you use all the time, your garage, or any other area that gets a lot of foot traffic. Constantly being scared away by approaching people will make them feel less safe about visiting often. Similarly, don’t hang a hummingbird feeder on the same pole with regular birdseed feeders. A minimum of a few feet away from other feeders will ensure the hummingbirds feel safe to perch and relax.
Lastly, within 10-15 feet of a large shrub or tree is often helpful. Far enough away that they have time to escape a predator lurking in the bushes, and close enough that they can zip over to the foliage to perch. Hummingbirds like a place to perch before and after feeding. We’ve noticed the hummingbirds in our yard tend to sit in a nearby tree first and scope out the feeder before deciding to go for a drink.
3. Not Cleaning Feeders Regularly
Hummingbird nectar spoils due to the growth of mold, yeast, or bacteria, which thrive in the sugary solution. The sugar in nectar provides a rich food source for these microorganisms, especially in warm or humid environments. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long for nectar to start going bad, especially during the summer. When nectar is left out in hot weather, microorganisms grow faster and the sugar can even break down and ferment. This not only makes the nectar unsafe for hummingbirds, but it can also deter them from feeding.
To prevent spoilage, it’s important to clean feeders regularly, refill them with fresh nectar, and avoid leaving the nectar out for long periods, especially on hot days. You can use this handy chart, but it is just an estimation. Make sure you keep an eye on your feeder for signs of spoilage like cloudy nectar, anything floating or growing in the nectar, and strong, sour smells.
4. Using the Wrong Nectar
When making your own nectar for hummingbird feeders, it is important to get the sugar concentration right. You want to create a mixture that closely mimics the sugar concentration found naturally found in plants. This is what a hummingbirds body is designed to be able to process, digest, and use for energy.
If your sugar concentration is too low, it won’t provide them with the energy they need and they probably won’t bother to use your feeder. If your sugar concentration is too high, you can actually hurt them by causing dehydration or liver damage. Make sure you are sticking to the ratio of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. That perfect ratio will ensure their health and will keep them coming back time after time.
5. Inconsistent Food Sources
If there’s not a consistent supply of food, especially in early spring when hummingbirds are migrating, they might not stick around. If you are choosing to put out hummingbird feeders, make sure you stick with it! Have feeders out and ready for their spring arrival, and try not to leave gaps of days when there is no feeder available. If you need to bring your feeder in for several days while cleaning, make sure to have a second one to rotate with. Make sure to check your feeder daily to ensure it doesn’t run out of nectar.
If you are using flowers to attract hummingbirds, you need to think about a bloom schedule. A bloom schedule refers to the timeline of when different plants in a garden or landscape are expected to bloom throughout the year. With careful planning, you can create a vibrant garden with flowers that bloom in succession from early spring to late fall, ensuring hummingbirds always have a reason to return to your yard.
6. Use of Harmful Pesticides
Pesticides can be harmful to hummingbirds, either directly through poisoning or indirectly by affecting their food sources. Certain types of pesticides are especially dangerous, particularly those that are commonly used in gardens and landscapes where hummingbirds frequent. The most harmful pesticides to hummingbirds typically include neonicotinoids, organophosphates, and carbamates.
Neonicotinoids are one of the most widely used classes of pesticides, but they are also among the most harmful to hummingbirds and other pollinators. These chemicals can be absorbed by plants and flowers, including nectar-producing ones, poisoning the hummingbirds when they feed. Neonicotinoids are neurotoxic and can disrupt the nervous system of birds, potentially leading to disorientation, paralysis, or even death. These pesticides are often used on crops, ornamental plants, and even in lawn care products.
Organophosphates and carbamates are another group of pesticides that pose a significant threat to hummingbirds. These chemicals work by disrupting the nervous system of insects, but they can also affect birds. While hummingbirds may not directly ingest these chemicals, they can be exposed through contaminated insects or by ingesting small amounts of pesticide-laced nectar. These types of pesticides are commonly used for controlling a wide range of pests, including aphids and caterpillars, which can sometimes be found on plants visited by hummingbirds.
To protect hummingbirds and other beneficial wildlife, it’s important to avoid using these harmful pesticides in your garden. If you must use pesticides, consider choosing organic or natural alternatives, such as insecticidal soaps or neem oil, which are less toxic to birds.
7. Too Much Competition At The Feeder
Is your feeder being taken over by other visitors that may be scaring away or pushing out the hummingbirds? Nectar can attract a lot of other hungry backyard creatures! Insects like bees, wasps and ants can become a problem, and if they are swarming the feeder the hummingbirds will probably avoid it. Other bird species like orioles and woodpeckers are also attracted to sugary nectar, and may be scaring off the hummingbirds if they visit too frequently.
Having multiple feeders can help ensure there’s always one available for visiting hummingbirds. Alternatively, try a different style of feeder—one with very short perches or, even better, no perches at all. This design makes it difficult for larger birds to balance and access the nectar, leaving it open for hummingbirds to feed undisturbed.
Bees and ants can be tricky. First, make sure your feeder isn’t dripping or leaking. Any nectar that escapes the feeder is like a beacon to insects saying “food here!”. For ants, install an ant moat above the feeder to block their access. Installing bee guards on gravity-fed feeders or keeping the nectar level lower on saucer feeders can aid in preventing flying insects from reaching the nectar.
8. Improper Timing of Flowers & Feeders
The majority of hummingbirds in the United States spend their winters far to the south, and don’t return until spring. Then at the end of the summer, they are ready to head south again. If the flowers in your yard bloom outside of this mid-spring to late-summer window, then they won’t do any good to attract them.
For the best chance of attracting hummingbirds, you want flowers to be blooming from mid spring to late summer. Hummingbirds won’t be around for early spring or late fall blooms, for the most part. For example, daffodils are usually an early spring bloomer, and have died back by time hummingbirds arrive back in the U.S.
Feeder timing is important too. If you don’t have your feeders out when the hummingbirds arrive back in spring, you may go months without seeing them. As they are creating their mental list of best territory to find food in, your yard could get left off the list.
However, you may still have a chance to see them if you try again as the end of summer approaches. Around August many people get an influx of hummingbirds back in their yard. At this point, most of the seasons young hummingbirds are grown and out on their own, territorial disputes relax, females aren’t tied to a nest and are free to roam again, and everyone must fatten up for the fall migration.
Summary
If you’ve followed these tips and still don’t see hummingbirds, be patient. They may need time to discover your yard or could be in a low-activity period. It’s also helpful to check which hummingbird species live in your state and use range maps to determine when and where they’re most likely to be found. Keep your space inviting, and they’ll likely visit soon!
Melanie is an environmental scientist, birdwatcher, and amateur photographer. She’s been a birding hobbyist for years and loves feeding and learning about birds of all types. Over the years, Melanie has identified more than 250 bird species, with sightings of the Atlantic Puffin, Hawaiian Goose, and Arctic Tern among her most cherished.