How to Create a
Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden
Part 1:
Know Who You Are Inviting
(understanding hummingbirds & butterflies)
by Patricia Sutton
Each year the garden creeps into the yard a bit more and the
mowed portion diminishes, much to the delight of hummingbirds,
butterflies, moths, and me. Soon there will be nothing left to
mow but pathways through wildflower gardens. In 1990 New
Jersey Audubon readers enjoyed an earlier version of
this article. Since then I've learned a great deal more and am
excited to share it here.
Our
jeweled avian guests begin arriving each year in April, some
years as early as the 4th and some years as late as
the 28th, but normally between the 19th
and the 23rd. In southern New Jersey Ruby-throated
Hummingbirds (the East's only breeding hummingbird) time their
arrival with the blooming of Flowering Quince. Elsewhere it may
be Crabapple, Apple, Blueberry, Azalea, Autumn Olive, Black
Locust, or Tulip Tree blossoms that first draw them in. During
early spring cold snaps a hummingbird's life may be saved as it
feeds on sap flowing from trees and shrubs where yellow-bellied
sapsuckers have drilled their holes.
Hummingbird Feeders -- Good or Bad?
Despite yeoman efforts, my gardens in April and May are
pretty sparse for hungry hummingbirds. So, to intercept spring
migrants and hold onto them as potential nesting birds, I hang
hummingbird feeders in mid-April. Males arrive first and some
years one buzzes in as I'm hanging the first feeder. From that
day forward hummingbirds are regulars at my feeders and in
budding tree tops as they flit after spiders and other insects.
The constant source of food that a feeder can provide (April
through October) in a garden that is always changing, and where
nectar is not constant, may be what entices a hummingbird to
nest in your yard or nearby.
The proper solution for a feeder is one part sugar and four
parts water (or one cup of sugar added to four cups of water). A
stronger sugar concentration could be hard for the birds to
digest or lead to liver damage. A quart can be made at a time
and extra stored in the refrigerator. Red dye is unnecessary,
even discouraged; most hummingbird feeders have red parts that
serve quite well to attract the birds. A honey solution may lead
to a fatal fungus disease in hummingbirds.
A mandatory responsibility that comes with the enjoyment
feeders bring is maintaining their cleanliness and supplying
fresh solution. They must be cleaned thoroughly with hot, soapy
water and then rinsed with boiling hot water at least once a week, and more frequently (every two to
three days) during the extreme heat of summer. Then refill with fresh solution, even if birds are
not diminishing the supply. Otherwise, old solution ferments
and could even be harmful once it turns into alcohol. Early in
the spring when feeder activity is low, I only put an inch or so
of solution in each feeder. Actually the only time I fill
feeders to the top is during heavy use, from late June to early
September.
The Cape May Bird Observatory and other New Jersey Audubon
Society centers sell and highly recommend HummZinger feeders
because they are so well thought out and educational: (1)
they're easy and quick to clean, (2) have no hidden parts where
mold can grow, (3) directions for feeder solution are printed
inside feeder so you can not forget, (4) have a built in ant
moat, (5) have no yellow parts (yellow attracts bees and wasps),
and (6) saucer design makes it impossible for bees and wasps to reach
the solution.
I am often asked if hummingbird feeders are "bad." No, they
are not, as long as they're maintained and not the only source
of food in a yard. Feeders should complement yards full of
nectar sources and healthy insect populations. This mix of food
(evolving gardens and always-available feeders) is what may
entice a hummingbird to nest in or near your yard. When their
favored nectar sources are blooming, hummingbirds will ignore
feeders. In New Jersey this is the case in late spring when
Japanese Honeysuckle blooms (May 25 to June 15). Continue to
maintain feeders even when they're not in use. The hummingbirds
will be back.
Hummingbirds Galore!
From late June through September 5 feeders may
be used so heavily that they must be filled every few days or
every day. This
is when you really have an opportunity to study this tiny jewel.
Sometimes four to six birds, both adults and newly fledged
young, might be vying for a place at one feeder. Males are
extremely territorial, often known to chase even their own young
from feeders and gardens. They are all so busy dashing after one
another you wonder when they have a chance to feed. In our
half-acre yard we put out five feeders, placing them so that one
territorial male cannot see more than one or two feeders at
once. This has reduced competition and more birds have a chance
to feed. By September 8th use drops off dramatically;
by mid-month all the resident hummingbirds have left, and the
feeder is unattended except for the occasional migrant. Most
avid hummingbird gardeners leave their feeders up until hard
freezes (in December), since
late fall is when western rarities like Black-chinned, Calliope,
Allen's, and Rufous Hummingbirds have appeared in gardens with
feeders in New Jersey.
A Successful Hummingbird Garden
Many flowering plants attract hummingbirds. Most are tubular
in shape and many are red, though certainly not all. A
successful hummingbird garden provides nectar sources from May
through the first frost. There is a great temptation to plant
acres of Bee Balm or Cardinal Flower, two of their favorite
nectar sources. But in each case nectar would be available for
just a brief period in a hummingbird's life. The wise gardener
selects an assortment of flowering plants with overlapping
blooming periods, mixes perennials and annuals, and lets some of
nature's wildflowers and weeds persist, many of which are
favored by hummingbirds and butterflies.
Add Butterflies and Moths to the Mix
What is a hummingbird garden without the added dazzle of
butterflies and moths? Quite simply, plants chosen to attract
hummingbirds will often attract butterflies and moths too. The
core of my butterfly and hummingbird garden is a large corridor
of Tropical Sage (4 feet by 12 feet, with plants every 10
inches), a dozen Butterfly Bushes, and sizeable patches of Bee
Balm, Butterfly Weed, Common and Swamp Milkweed, Joe-pye-weed,
Mistflower, Phlox, Purple Coneflower, New England Aster,
Seaside Goldenrod, Zinnias, Sedum, Brazilian Vervain, Mexican Sunflower,
and a pond edged with Pickerelweed. All this is interspersed
with many other flowers, herbs, and volunteer weeds like Queen
Anne's Lace, Lamb's Quarters, Curled Dock, and flowering trees,
shrubs, and vines.
Plant IT and They Will Come
Plant a butterfly and hummingbird garden and they will come. Lure butterflies right into your own yard so that you can savor
them. You'll first notice the big, showy swallowtails, but
actually most butterflies are tiny and easily overlooked. Be
sure to take binoculars when you go out to enjoy your garden.
Butterflies are easily flushed by movement, so be sure to look
ahead at your flowers for visitors. A butterfly's camouflage is amazing
and the naked eye can't be counted on to detect many of them.
Binoculars are essential. A camera is fun too, but be sure to move in slowly and low so as not to
cross over them with your shadow and you might get an
eye-popping photo or naked eye look.
Most moths are active at night. Treat yourself on a moonlit
night to a stroll through your gardens to see another world
unfold, as many of the flowers so attractive to butterflies by
day are adorned with moths at night. By day you may see
Hummingbird Moths in your gardens; the two species to expect are
Hummingbird Clearwing and Snowberry Clearwing. Hummingbird
Clearwings are bigger, have red markings in their clear wings,
and greenish bodies; Snowberry Clearwings are a bit smaller and
resemble bumble bees with their yellow and black bodies,
camouflage key to their survival. They hover like a hummingbird
before the flowers and are a fun addition to any garden.
Click
here for
the plant list
that compliments this article,
"Recommended
Plantings to Attract
Hummingbirds, Butterflies, & Moths"
Unusual Preferences
Quite a few butterflies (and moths) prefer feces, urine, and
rotten fruit to flowers. Not owning any fruit trees, I buy
pears, peaches, bananas, and watermelon to attract butterflies.
In recent years I've cultivated a relationship with my favorite
farm stand. They now save their spoiled fruit for me. Watermelon is the easiest attractant. Place a flat slice on a
plate, dolling out new slices as the first dries out or gets
moldy. Bananas have worked the best for me and they're always
available, but they aren't always rotten enough to attract
butterflies. I've learned to peel and freeze them; once thawed
they are nice and liquidy and immediately attractive to
butterflies. My homemade butterfly feeder is nothing more than a
ceramic plate with a lip (so liquids don't drip off) filled with
gooey bananas and hung from a tree by a simple plant hanger. I
suspend it, rather than place it on the ground, so ants do not
make off with the precious bananas. A little fresh orange juice
each day keeps the bananas moist and attractive a while longer
to the normally elusive butterflies. Red-spotted Purple, Red
Admiral, Question Mark, Eastern Comma, Mourning Cloak, Common
Wood-Nymph, Little Wood-Satyr, Appalachian Brown, Hackberry
Emperor, and Tawny Emperor butterflies have all enjoyed feeding
at my dish of fruit by day, and at night a rich assortment of
moths finds it irresistible.
Providing water adds another enticement into your yard.
Garden sprinklers draw in hummingbirds and mud puddles please
butterflies. Misters and drips are a more permanent solution
than a garden sprinkler. They are easy to set up and readily
available now that gardening for wildlife has caught on. My
mister is set up to spray down through tree branches and into a
series of birdbaths. I've utilized the moist ground and
planted Cardinal Flower, Joe-pye-weed, and other plants that
like wet feet under the mister. Hummingbirds find
it irresistible; they fly through
the mist and often bathe in the drips collected on leaves.
A killing frost wilts the last flowers in late October and
the parade of butterflies wanes. A few hardy species (Cabbage
White, Orange Sulphur, Question Mark, Eastern Comma, Red
Admiral, Monarch, Common Buckeye) may be seen through November
and into early December. The deep freeze winter months seem
endless without these entertaining gems. Just how they survive
the winter is important to understand because it relates to
recommended gardening practices.
Great Reasons for an Untidy Garden
About fifteen or so of the commonly seen butterflies in New
Jersey cannot survive our winters in any form (egg, caterpillar,
chrysalis, or adult butterfly) and must migrate south in the
fall or die. Each spring or fall, in some cases, they migrate
north and repopulate New Jersey from the south. Nearly all
the rest of our butterflies pass the winter in our gardens not
as an adult butterfly, but as an egg on a plant, a caterpillar
in a curled-up leaf or down in the leaf litter, or a chrysalis
attached to a plant stem in a sheltered spot. The adult
butterflies died months before, after laying eggs. For
this very reason I often leave my garden standing through the
winter. Otherwise I would be carting off next year's
potential butterflies as I tidied up.
Another excellent
excuse to be a lazy gardener in the fall is that the spring
through fall butterfly garden turns into a winter bird garden.
Many birds find shelter in the still standing garden and feed on
the abundant seed heads.
Only four different butterflies winter as adults here in New Jersey: Mourning Cloak, Question Mark,
Eastern Comma, and Compton Tortoiseshell. They survive the cold
months in protected nooks and crannies, down inside woodpiles,
under shutters or shingles, or inside hollow trees. Hence, these
are the only four species that might use a butterfly house. On a
warm winter day you may find Mourning Cloaks or Compton
Tortoiseshells lilting about, but as soon as the temperature
drops they'll return to their safe nook or cranny. By March, as
the weather warms, some of the butterflies that winter as an
egg, a caterpillar, or a chrysalis, are beginning to complete
their metamorphosis and emerge as adult butterflies. And by
April more and more adult butterflies are emerging and can be
enjoyed.
--Patricia Sutton
Much of the information in this article is derived from Pat
Sutton's long experience with gardening in Cape May County, and
some of the flowering periods and bird arrival dates reflect
this. Readers living in areas other than the southern Coastal
Plain of New Jersey may wish to adapt their gardening
accordingly.
Patricia Sutton is Program Director for the Cape May
Bird Observatory, and author of How to Spot an Owl,
How to Spot Hawks & Eagles, and How to Spot a Butterfly.
She has taught hundreds of backyard habitat workshops for New
Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory since 1988.
Part 2: Planning The
Garden
(sage advice)
click here