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People living in densely populated cities can attract hummingbirds to their feeders even if they live in high-rise housing and hang their feeders on the balcony.
Are Hummingbirds Seen In Urban Areas?
Hummingbirds are seen in urban areas, especially during migration season as they travel north in the spring and south in the fall.
If there are enough natural food sources and feeders in the urban area they can be enticed to live in the urban area rather than just migrate through the urban area.
The key to getting hummingbirds to stay in an urban area is to have enough native tubular nectar-producing flowering plants growing in the city to adequately supply their energy needs.
See my article: What Do Hummingbirds Eat?
Hummingbirds will visit between 1,000 and 2,000 flowers daily drinking the nectar to meet their energy needs.
They have an extraordinary ability to remember where every flower is located and when they last visited that flower and drank its nectar.
They also know how long it will take that flower to regenerate enough nectar to be ready to visit again.
See my article: Hummingbird Adaptation and Remarkable Ability to Locate Food.
Planting the appropriate type of native tubular-flowering plants for your location in adequate quantity, along with hanging hummingbird feeders will attract hummingbirds to your backyard.
See my article: Increase Backyard Hummingbird Activity in 7 Days or Less.
Additionally, the hummingbird nectar placed in the feeders needs to be the same ratio of sugar to water that mimics the sugar to water ratio found in the nectar produced by the native tubular-flowering plants.
See my article: Forget Commercial Hummingbird Food Try Making Homemade Nectar.
In What Big Cities Urban Areas Are Hummingbirds Seen?
Hummingbirds are documented as being seen in every big city urban area, including the United State’s four largest urban cities of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Huston.
New York City:
The Ruby-throated hummingbird, New York’s most common hummingbird, is documented as being seen throughout urban New York, including New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens by the eBird sighting map (zoom in to see sightings in these areas).
The Ruby-throated hummingbird has also been seen in New York City by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden organization.
They report a few years ago a hummingbird had attempted to nest in Central Park.
Los Angeles:
Anna’s hummingbird, California’s most common hummingbird seen and a year-round resident, is documented as being heavily seen throughout urban Los Angeles by the eBird sighting map (zoom in to see sightings in the urban areas of Los Angeles).
Chicago:
The Ruby-throated hummingbird is seen in urban Chicago every year according to USA Today.
Within the urban area of Chicago, the Chicago Botanical Gardens have frequent hummingbird sightings.
The Ruby-throated hummingbird is documented as being seen throughout urban Chicago by eBird sighting map, including surrounding suburbs (zoom in to see sightings in these areas).
Some hummingbirds have even been seen in Chicago urban areas in the winter.
Huston:
The Ruby-throated hummingbird is documented as being seen throughout the urban areas of Huston by eBird sighting map, including surrounding urban suburbs (zoom in to see sightings in these areas).
Will hummingbirds come to a high-rise balcony feeder?
Hummingbirds will come to a hummingbird feeder on a high-rise balcony by first getting the hummingbird’s attention with many brightly colored items that a hummingbird may want to investigate as a food source.
Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red with a strong attraction to pink, orange and yellow as well.
That is why most hummingbird feeders have a red top and bottom with some having yellow “flower buds” as feeding ports.
But hummingbird feeders by themselves may not be enough of an attention-getter if your balcony is more than two or three stories high.
I recently read in a forum that one high-rise apartment dweller was able to attract hummingbirds to her 21st-story balcony feeder.
Any brightly colored item placed on the balcony will catch a hummingbird’s attention, including chairs, umbrellas, or even brightly colored ribbons tied to the balcony rails will help.
Placing hummingbird attracting living flowering plants on the balcony is a strong attraction to a hummingbird as well.
I have written an article that gives ideas about native plants in the west, mid-west, and east sections of the United States that attract hummingbirds.
See my article: Increase Backyard Hummingbird Activity in 7 Days or Less.
While flowering plants are the best, they can be difficult to maintain.
Artificial brightly colored hanging baskets will just as readily get a hummingbird’s attention and get them to “check things out”, they will be very happy to find your feeder and will frequent it several times a day, especially early morning when they first awake and just before sunset before they go to sleep for the night.
Adding a water feature to the baloney will be a big plus also.
Hummingbirds are attracted to the sound of running water, plus they love to bathe, especially in hot weather.
During the hot summer months, hummingbirds are looking for ways to cool themselves.
Providing these additional opportunities on your balcony will also help attract hummingbirds.
See my article: How To Help Hummingbirds in Hot Weather.
Other of my articles mentioned in the post:
- What Do Hummingbirds Eat?
- Hummingbird Adaptation and Remarkable Ability to Locate Food.
- Increase Backyard Hummingbird Activity in 7 Days or Less.
- Forget Commercial Hummingbird Food Try Making Homemade Nectar.
- How To Help Hummingbirds in Hot Weather.
Check out my other posts on Hummingbird Questions
Happy Hummingbird Watching!
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