Beautiful Plants For Your Interior
Hummingbirds primarily feed on nectar from flowers, which is a sweet liquid produced by plants to attract pollinators such as hummingbirds, bees, butterflies, and moths. Hummingbirds have a long, thin bill and a frayed tongue that is perfect for extracting nectar from deep within flowers.
Hummingbirds are able to feed on a wide variety of flowers, and they have a preference for brightly colored, tubular-shaped flowers such as trumpet creeper, bee balm, cardinals, salvia, columbine, and lantana. These flowers have nectaries (specialized structures that produce nectar) that are deep inside the flower, and the hummingbird’s long bill and frayed tongue allow it to reach inside and extract the nectar.
The nectar that hummingbirds consume is primarily composed of sucrose and water, but it can vary depending on the flower source. Some flowers have higher sugar concentration than others, and hummingbirds have been observed to prefer flowers with higher sugar concentration. They also prefer flowers that are rich in red color, as they associate it with higher sugar concentration.
It is important to provide hummingbirds with a constant source of nectar, especially during the times when natural nectar sources are scarce, such as during droughts, cold weather or the end of the blooming season. This can be achieved by providing hummingbird feeders filled with a mixture of sugar and water, or by planting native nectar-rich plants in your garden.