Best Hummingbird Gardens in Chittenden County, Vermont

Shelburne Museum is the largest art and history museum in northern New England, set on 45 acres with 39 historic buildings and more than 20 distinct gardens. Founded in 1947 by Electra Havemeyer Webb, the museum's extraordinary landscape features hundreds of lilacs and peonies in spring, 1,700-plus daylilies in summer, heirloom vegetable and herb gardens, perennial borders, an apothecary garden, and annual gardens bursting with zinnias and dahlias. The museum's extensive plantings across 20+ individual garden spaces create diverse and sustained hummingbird habitat throughout summer.

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The Green Mountain Audubon Center is a 255-acre wildlife sanctuary and environmental education hub in the foothills of the Green Mountains near Burlington, operated by Audubon Vermont since 1964 and recognized as an Important Bird Area. Five miles of public trails wind through northern hardwood forest, hemlock swamp, meadows, and the Bird-Friendly Sugarbush. The property hosts more than 100 species of breeding and wintering birds, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are confirmed breeding residents — forest-edge meadow habitat is ideal for nesting and foraging from late May through early September.

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Shelburne Farms is a 1,400-acre working farm, forest, and National Historic Landmark overlooking Lake Champlain, established in the late 1880s by William Seward Webb and Lila Vanderbilt Webb. Lila Webb's Flower Gardens — restored to their original grandeur — sit on a bluff above the lake and represent one of the finest surviving examples of American Country Place Era garden design, featuring terraced formal borders, perennial beds, and sweeping lawn vistas framed by Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are common summer breeders throughout the property.

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