Your Lawn Decor May Be The Reason Hummingbirds Aren't Visiting Your Yard. Here's Why

Many people love to watch hummingbirds. This unique bird is a sight to behold and flaps its wings at a whopping 70 wingbeats per second. If you're like many homeowners, you find these little birds fascinating and would love to attract more of them to your yard. Unfortunately, hummingbirds avoid all types of loud sounds, so you may be scaring them away without realizing it.

Many homeowners love to keep wind chimes on the front porch or in a garden. When the wind blows through the chimes, the sound creates a unique ambiance and may help you unwind. Despite this, some wind chimes can be loud and startling to hummingbirds and may scare them away if you have them hanging up around the home. The unfamiliar sounds and movements of the wind chimes may be alarming to many types of birds, including hummingbirds.

Wind chimes make noise; however, they aren't as startling to hummingbirds as other sounds and won't necessarily scare them away. Wind chimes vary and some are more likely to keep birds away than others. Consider the placement and style of your wind chimes if you want to avoid scaring hummingbirds away.

If you want to avoid scaring away hummingbirds with the wind chimes in your yard, think carefully about how you use them. The right placement is key. Avoid placing wind chimes near hummingbird feeders, bird baths, and other areas where you have seen them in the past or would like to see them. Although they'll be attracted to certain elements of your yard and garden, they may still avoid those locations if wind chimes are nearby.

When choosing wind chimes, keep in mind that some are more hummingbird-friendly than others. In general, you'll want to opt for quieter wind chimes that don't have a broad tonal range. Light, high-pitched wind chimes with melodic sounds are less likely to scare hummingbirds away compared to loud and booming wind chimes. Bamboo wind chimes are a great option to consider. 

Remember that whatever chimes you choose to use, hummingbirds will probably get used to them eventually. If they have heard them for a while, they'll likely end up coming to your yard anyway and won't be as bothered by them, particularly if you follow other tips for attracting them to your yard. Despite this, you may want to play it safe and avoid hanging wind chimes up altogether if you want hummingbirds around your home.

As fascinating as hummingbirds are to watch, they can also benefit the garden in other ways. Although some birds, such as crows and certain blackbirds, are considered pests and will eat the vegetables in your garden, this is not the case for hummingbirds. Like many other birds, they help get rid of the insects, spiders, and pests that eat your plants. Thanks to their long beaks, they can also pollinate flowers that other birds can't.

To attract hummingbirds to your home, provide food sources that they love. Adding plants, flowers, and trees that produce pollen and nectar will make hummingbirds more likely to visit. Impatiens, butterfly weed, petunia, pineapple sage, and dahlias are all favored by hummingbirds. You should also avoid using pesticides in your garden to avoid harming hummingbirds. 

Hummingbirds also like the color red, so consider adding more of it to your garden in the form of flowers, bird feeders, and other decor. In addition to this, adding a shallow water source for bathing and drinking is helpful, so consider placing a bird bath or fountain in your garden. Finally, you may also want to consider DIYing your own hummingbird feeder if you want hummingbirds to start coming around more often.