I have always loved fairies and hummingbirds. Both are tiny with fast-beating wings, flitting from flower to flower either on starry nights or sunny days, chirping to each other with high-pitched voices while hovering in the air with the moonlight or sun rays reflecting off their bodies, creating rainbow, iridescent colors.

While fairies are mythical, hummingbirds are real-life winged fairies of our gardens. We tend to think of just bees and butterflies as pollinators, but the tiny, jewel-like birds also play a crucial pollinator role. Hummingbirds co-evolved with native nectar plants, each benefiting the other. A keystone species (a species which other species in an ecosystem largely depend on, so if it disappeared the ecosystem would be severely altered), hummingbirds pollinate at least 20% of specialized indigenous plant species.

Hummingbird Facts

The world's smallest bird, hummingbirds are the only birds that can fly backwards. With up to 1,260 beats per minute, they have the highest heart rate in the animal kingdom. They have no sense of smell, but have superb eyesight. They have a life expectancy of five to ten years (depending on the species).

Hummingbirds have a very high metabolism and must eat all day. They consume about half their body weight each day while feeding. Nectar from 1,000-2,000 flowers provides 20% of a hummingbird's daily diet, which they drink with a fringed forked tongue in their long beak. Insects provide the bulk of their diet, which includes beetles, aphids, gnats, mosquitoes and wasps.

Members of the biological family Trochilidae, hummingbirds are found only in the Americas. There are about 366 species total, most being in Central and South America, with about 25 species found in the United States. Most hummingbirds are migratory, overwintering in Mexico and Central America, migrating north to their breeding/nesting grounds.

The smallest hummingbird, the Bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae), is a native of Cuba. With a body about an inch long, it weighs the equivalent of 1/4^th teaspoon of sugar! The “large” Giant hummingbird (Patagonia gigas) of western South America is about eight inches long (20 cm), weighing less than half of most sparrows.

California Hummingbirds

California has about nine species of hummingbirds with four commonly seen species in the Stanislaus County area listed here in order of most abundant to the least:

• Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna):   This permanent year-round resident is a common sight in many of our gardens. The colorful red-headed male is the largest and most prominent of our local hummingbirds.  The fastest of all hummingbirds, it can fly up to 60 miles per hour.  Males perform a death-defying courtship dive, plummeting to the ground at speeds and accelerations that put jet pilots to shame. Females build the nests and care for the young alone, having three broods a year.
• Rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus): With its beautiful orange-red gorget (a hummingbird's brilliant throat feathers), these migrating birds are a beautiful sight in local gardens in the spring and fall. Unlike the green body feathers of other common species in our area, the male has copper-colored feathers. Nesting further north than any other hummingbird, they fly up to 2,000 miles (3,200 km) during their migratory journeys to Canada. 
• Black-chinned hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri): Another migratory species, it spends winters in Central America while nesting here in the summers. The male has a black face with a purple gorget at the base of the chin. The female builds a well-camouflaged nest in a shrub or tree.
• Costa's hummingbird (Calypte costae): The smallest and least common of our local hummingbirds, it breeds and nests here in summers, spending winters in Baja California/western Mexico area. The male has a colorful purple gorget and neck.

A Hummingbird Friendly Garden

Providing sugar water feeders is the easiest addition to your garden to attract hummingbirds. Ideally there should more than one feeder, spaced apart due to hummingbirds' territorial tendencies, and near nectar-producing plants.

To make the sugar syrup combine one-part white cane sugar to four parts boiling water and let cool. Do not use honey, molasses, brown sugar, agave, artificial sugar, etc. as these can be harmful to hummingbirds. Food coloring is unnecessary since the red color of the feeder will attract the birds. If possible, place the feeders out of direct sunlight. Refill and clean feeders every 3-4 days (more frequently in hot weather) with a bottle brush, hot water, and a little white vinegar (which retards mold). Extra sugar syrup can be stored in refrigerator for a week or so. 

In addition to sucrose, nectar provides additional sugars (glucose and fructose), along with compounds such as carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins and oils which sugar feeders cannot provide. So, flowering plants that produce nectar should also be present in your garden to give hummingbirds a diverse, nutritious diet. Hummingbirds favor flowers that are tubular, in red, orange or bright pink colors. Some good choices include penstemons, fuchsias, red salvias, and bee balms.

A hummingbird friendly garden should also include trees and bushes for perching, hiding and nesting, water for drinking and bathing, and safety from domestic cats.  

An excellent plant list resource provided by UC Agriculture & Natural Resources (UC ANR) and Master Gardener is Plants that Attract Hummingbirds – Zones 8 and 9: https://ucanr.edu/sites/UC_Master_Gardeners/files/287098.pdf

Hummingbird Challenges

Hummingbirds are struggling to find suitable habitat and those that migrate face numerous threats along their lengthy migratory routes. As with many species in today's world, climate change will present challenges to hummingbirds.

Both the local Rufous hummingbirds and Black-chinned hummingbirds are among those considered to be at risk (https://www.audubon.org/news/how-climate-change-threatens-hummingbirds).

By providing backyard sanctuaries with feeders and native plants we can help support these valuable feathered fairies of our gardens, so they can continue to delight us and pollinate our plants.

Additional Resources

https://wildbirdworld.com/hummingbirds-of-california/

https://www.cnps.org/gardening/hummingbird-gardening-5098

 

Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UCCE Master Gardener with Stanislaus County since 2020.

Last year, the UCCE Stanislaus County Master Gardener Lavender Committee put on a lovely workshop. Participants:

• Explored the history of lavender and its uses.
• Learned about different types of lavender and how to grow them.
• Snacked on goodies made from lavender, like lavender lemonade and shortbread.
• Made a lavender wand.
• Took home a lavender sachet and lavender plant.

 

We hope you will join us for a relaxing time, while making new friends and learning all about this rejuvenating herb. This year, the Lavender Committee will be giving away lavender eye pillows instead of sachets.

Where: Stanislaus County Agricultural Center, Harvest Hall rooms AB&C, 3800 Cornucopia Way, Modesto, 95358.  
When: Saturday, June 24 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Cost: $30
Note: 30 spaces available 
Questions? (209) 525-6862
Sign up online: https://ucanr.edu/lavender/2023

Master Gardener Instructors: Nancy Robinson, Heidi Aufdermaur, Bonnie Jones-Lee, Connie Gardener, and Janet Wickstrom.

If you cannot afford to pay full price for this workshop, please contact Anne at (209) 525-6862 or aschellman@ucanr.edu for a partial scholarship (while supplies last).

*lavender wands can be placed in clothes drawers or cabinets to release a fresh scent and may last for years. Or keep your wand near your desk and inhale its relaxing fragrance when needed.

How Did the Western Monarchs Do This Winter in California?

In April I visited Pismo State Beach's Monarch Butterfly Grove. I knew there wouldn't be any western monarchs who overwintered remaining there (though I saw three flying around!), since they left a few weeks prior to begin their annual migration north. But I was curious: How did California's shrinking monarch population do this winter? The short answer is they did relatively well. . .but before getting to the details, let's review their current status.

Monarchs in Trouble

The colorful orange-and-black, magnificent monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) are the world's most recognized and beloved butterflies.  Yet, they are increasingly in danger of becoming extinct. An announcement last summer from International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announced the monarch butterfly had been put on its "Red List of Threatened Species as Endangered” due to habitat destruction, climate change, and pesticides, with the primary reason being reduction in milkweed plants that are so vital to their survival.

IUCN stated: "The western population is at greatest risk of extinction, having declined by an estimated 99.9%, from as many as 10 million to 1,914 butterflies between the 1980s and 2021.” In addition, "The larger eastern population also shrunk by 84% from 1996 to 2014. Concern remains as to whether enough butterflies survive to maintain the populations and prevent extinction."

This Year's Status

According to a recent article by Tara Duggan (https://www.pressreader.com/usa/san-francisco-chronicle-late-edition/20230201/281595244675872) the 2022 annual Thanksgiving count organized by Xerces Society showed relatively high numbers of western monarchs this year with over 330,000 found in overwintering sites throughout California's central coast. This is a significant increase from the winter of 2020-21 when fewer than 2,000 were counted and they were thought to be on the threshold of extinction. The 2021-2022 count the following year was much better, at 250,000.

At the Pismo Beach monarch sanctuary, a board showed some of the tallies made over the years:

1990 – 230,000

1995 – 150,000

2000 – 40,000

2005 – 32,000

2010 – 24,000

2015 – 28,000

2017 – 12,300

2019 – 6,000

2020 – 188

2021 – 22,700

2022 – 24,128

The same board also showed the 2022-2023 Pismo Beach sanctuary monarch migration season count (October-February) from their peak numbers after arriving from the north in autumn to their departure in mid-February for the beginning of their annual northward migration. Presumably the decreasing numbers between November and December was due to winter storms.

11/15/22 – 24,100

11/30/22 – 19,177

12/13/22 – 15,707

1/17/23 – 15,817

2/7/23 – 15,015

2/21/23 – 4,628

How You Can Help

• Plant nectar plants for the adults!  While caterpillars feed only on milkweed, the adult monarch feeds on nectar from flowers while migrating. Native plants with tubular or funnel shapes are particularly attractive and nutritious for all butterflies.
• Plant milkweed! This plant is crucial to monarchs' survival since it is the only plant females lay their eggs on and the only source of food for the emerging larvae. When possible, plant from seed. If you purchase plants ask the nursery or garden center if the grower treated the plants with pesticides. The best time to plant is in the fall months when it's cooler, at the start of the rainy season. Local native milkweed varieties include:

o   Asclepias fascicularis (Narrowleaf milkweed)

o   Asclepias speciosa (Showy milkweed)

o   Asclepias syriaca (Common milkweed)

o   Asclepias cordifolia (Heartleaf milkweed)

 

• Use UC Integrated Pest Management as a resource: (https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/menu.homegarden.html). If you use a pesticide, avoid broad spectrum pesticides, selecting a pesticide for the specific pest/disease, or choose one that is less toxic such as horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps. Be sure to follow instructions and apply in early morning or late evening when pollinators are unlikely to be present.
• Get involved in the annual western monarch Thanksgiving and New Year counts (https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/) and/or tagging monarchs to monitor their migration patterns (https://www.monarchwatch.org/tagging/)

 

What Will the Future Bring for the Western Monarch?

This winter season's higher annual count numbers, while encouraging, are far below the historical counts, in the millions, of the 1980s. These beloved graceful creatures still have many challenges ahead. However, California state has invested over $1 million in monarch habitat restoration, including planting more milkweed, particularly here in the Central Valley, which is a part of their migratory flight path.

Only time will tell if their numbers will increase, but scientists say these efforts could help the western monarch population recover. By planting milkweed and native flowering plants in our gardens, we can be a part of this ongoing endeavor and hopefully be able to see more of these magnificent butterflies floating about in our gardens in the future.

To learn more about the life cycle and migration of the western monarch, read my article “Marvelous Monarchs” at https://ucanr.edu/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=55249

 

Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UCCE Master Gardener with Stanislaus County since 2020

On April 1, 2023, the La Loma Native Garden held its 3^rd annual Pollinator Festival. Participants stopped by the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener booth to spin our “Pollinator Wheel” and learn about native insects and best landscaping practices to protect them.

If you are interested in learning more about native insects and pollinator plants, you can watch our classes on these topics on our YouTube Channel at http://ucanr.edu/youtube/ucmgstanislaus

All photos by Rachel Bahn, Master Gardener from the 2022 Class.