Academics | Extension

The perfect hummingbird hab

itat is a simple one, and even the smallest garden can provide the food, water, perches, shelter and nesting sites that hummingbirds need. Learn how to lure these beautiful birds into your backyard ? and keep them coming back year after year.

Have you ever witnessed the tiny wings of an exquisite hummingbird in flight? Or marveled at its incredible acrobatic ability to fly backward or forward, to hover, or to ascend vertically at will?

Consider for a moment that hummingbirds? wings can rotate 180 degrees, either up, down, forward, or back. And, that their Lilliputian wings beat about 80 times per second during regular flight. Miraculously, this speed increases to a mere 200 times per second when the male hummingbird performs his display dive. When resting, hummingbirds take 250 breaths per minute!

If all of this doesn?t boggle your mind, imagine some of these miniature winged creatures, the Ruby-throated hummingbird in particular, flying 500 miles nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico to over winter. Did I mention that Ruby-throats weigh in at about three grams, and that their eggs are about the size of a large pinto bean?

Is it any wonder that these unique garden acrobats have captivated the attention of both hummingbird gardeners and ?watchers? for centuries?

Hummingbird conservation is our mission, along with promoting a greater understanding of hummingbirds.

For those who enjoy both gardening and birdwatching, it is fortunate that there's such a plenitude of plants for attracting hummingbirds from which to choose.

These unique garden acrobats have captivated the attention of both hummingbird gardeners and ?watchers? for centuries.

Hummingbird Garden

Hummingbird Garden