Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies to Your Backyard : Watch Your Garden Come Alive With Beauty on the Wing
This accessible, comprehensive volume will answer any and all questions about the visiting habits of hummingbirds and butterflies. Which flowers attract butterflies? Why do hummingbirds fly toward the color red? What's the role of water in attracting these revelatory creatures across the garden's boundary? The book opens with a chapter called "The Basics," which explains where and when hummingbirds and butterflies tend to emerge and their migration patterns, climate preferences, and life cycles. Later chapters include "Tempting Butterflies with Treats" and "Butterfly and Hummingbird Garden Designs." It concludes with a series of clear drawings of various species and their identifying characteristics, favored plants, range, and habitat. Writer Sally Roth is a natural guide to this flying world, and although her text contains reams of information, it never seems complicated or overwhelming. Well organized with illuminating sidebars and remarkable close-up photographs--a mother hummer feeding her young in their tiny nest--Attracting Butterflies and Hummingbirds to Your Backyardwill help you turn your garden into a destination for these miraculous guests.--Emily White