The Best Color To Instantly Attract More Hummingbirds Into Your Garden Space

Hummingbirds are a delight to watch thanks to their busy behavior and aerial antics, so it's no surprise that people enjoy attracting them to their yards and gardens. There are a lot of ways to attract them, including flowers, feeders, and even colorful ribbons. Keeping their favorite color in mind will help to make these strategies even more effective for filling your garden with the tiny birds. While hummingbirds are attracted to several colors, including orange and yellow, their favorite is red. 

Unlike insect pollinators like bees and flies, which are attracted to flowers based on scent, hummingbirds primarily use sight to find their next meal of nectar. So, it's not a coincidence that many of the flowers that easily attract hummingbirds to your garden are bright scarlet. Luckily, you can use this to your advantage when crafting a hummingbird garden by filling it with red flowers and design elements. 

Tying colorful ribbons on your trees can lure hummingbirds over to your yard when trying to utilize color and whimsy. This is especially helpful if you've recently put up a feeder and want to make sure hummingbirds come to check it out. You can also add red garden art or even paint your fence or other yard structures red. Of course, you don't want attracting the hummingbirds to outweigh the actual feeding of them.

That said, red flowers are perfect for attracting and nourishing hummingbirds. Filling a garden with shades of red blooms, with some oranges and yellows mixed in as well, is an ideal way to bring all the hummingbirds to your garden since it combines a food source and decor. You can go a bit further by adding flowers that also have a tubular shape, perfect for the birds' long bills.  

While you may have seen bright red hummingbird nectar available for sale, it's best to skip this, as it can actually be harmful to the birds' kidneys. Instead, make your own dye-free nectar and simply put it in a red feeder. You'll also want to make sure that you clean your hummingbird feeder regularly. It can otherwise quickly grow mold, especially if your feeder is in a hot climate or a full sun location. The last thing you want is for your local hummingbirds to get a fungal disease from your feeder. This could even kill the small birds.