Hummingbirds of Delaware

Mt. Cuba Center is widely regarded as one of the premier native plant botanical gardens in North America. Set on 50+ acres of display gardens and more than 1,000 acres of natural lands in the rolling Piedmont hills near Wilmington, Mt. Cuba was established as the private estate of the Lammot du Pont Copeland family and opened to the public as a non-profit botanical garden. Its rigorous trial garden program evaluates native plants for their ecological value to pollinators — including hummingbirds. The garden holds over 6,500 plant accessions and runs a Certificate in Ecological Gardening program.

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Winterthur is the former country estate of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969), now a world-class museum set within a naturalistic garden of nearly 1,000 acres of meadows, woodlands, streams, and ponds. Du Pont spent a lifetime developing the garden as a succession of seasonal bloom, creating one of the finest examples of American naturalistic garden design. The property contains meadows, native hardwood forests, ponds, and themed gardens including the Azalea Woods, Sundial Garden, and the Enchanted Woods — where Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird' is specifically documented.

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Brandywine Creek State Park is Delaware's premier natural area park, encompassing more than 900 acres of rolling Piedmont meadowlands, mature forest, and river corridor in northern Delaware. The park features 14+ miles of trails and two of Delaware's first designated nature preserves: the Fresh Water Marsh and the Tulip Tree Woods. The park actively manages its meadowlands to provide habitat for native pollinators, and the riparian corridor along Brandywine Creek is one of Delaware's most reliable hummingbird locations from late April through September.

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Nemours Estate is a stunning 300-acre French-inspired estate built by Alfred I. du Pont in 1909–1910, featuring one of the finest formal French gardens in North America. The mile-long vista garden includes reflecting pools, colonnades, fountains, and expansive parterres inspired by the Palace of Versailles. The estate reopened to the public after major renovations in 2022 and surrounds the formal gardens with naturalistic woodland grounds where Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are most commonly encountered in summer.

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