Homemade Hummingbird Food for Your Feeder

Hummingbirds love to drink sugar water from artificial feeders. You can safely make your own hummingbird food using white sugar and water.

Many store-bought, pre-packaged hummingbird foods contain red food dyes and preservatives that can be harmful to your hummingbird friends. So the best option is to prepare cooked food at your home.

Hummingbird food recipe: sugar water

This liquid meal is very easy to prepare. Your bird visitors will thank you!

Ingredients

2 cups of white sugar
8 cups of water

Instructions

Mix 2 cups of white sugar with 8 cups of water and leave the mixture until it boils. Stir until the sugar dissolves.
After all the sugar has boiled and dissolved, let it cool completely before filling your feeder.
Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
You can scale up or down this recipe to make larger or smaller batches — just stick to a ratio of 1 part sugar to 4 parts water.

Should I Add Red Dye?

No, there is no need to add red food coloring. Adding food coloring can also be harmful to birds. Although there are no scientific studies on the long-term effects of red food dye on hummingbirds, experts warn against its use.

Most hummingbird feeders are actually colored red, which is what attracts the birds. Food should not be red.

Can I use brown sugar, powdered sugar, or honey?

No, please do not use sugar or any other type of honey, as they contain substances that could be harmful to hummingbirds.

Brown sugar and raw sugar contain iron, which is toxic to hummingbirds. Powdered sugar contains cornstarch and causes the food to ferment.

Honey is not good for use in feeders because mixing it with water creates ideal conditions for microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. These can make your birds very sick.

Tips for hummingbird feeders

Buy a red feeder. It is best to purchase a red feeder or a feeder with prominent red features, such as red caps, perches, feeding areas, etc. Hummingbirds’ eyes are sensitive to red because red flowers are usually a good food source for them.

Hang the feeder high. Place your feeders high enough so birds don’t have to worry about being preyed on by cats.

Try hanging the feeder near a window. This advice is for your own good! If you hang the feeder right in front of the window, you can enjoy watching the birds pass by. Stand there quietly, and you can watch the birds eating and drinking the sugar water.

Keep the feeder full and clean. When you hang a hummingbird feeder, know that you assume a certain amount of responsibility. You should keep the feeder or feeders filled with sugar water, especially during the spring, summer and fall. You need to check the feeder for submerged insects. If you find them, wash the feeder and change the sugar water.

Space feeders 6 feet apart. If you have multiple feeders, be sure to leave at least 6 feet between them. This creates separate feeding areas for hummingbirds. These little birds can be very territorial and will chase other hummingbirds that they consider to be feeders, so well-located feeding areas will help prevent fights.

What other animals eat from hummingbird feeders?

You’ll also see other birds, mammals, and insects at the hummingbird feeder. Orioles, woodpeckers, and squirrels sometimes feed from your feeder. If you live in the American Southwest, some species of bats may be visiting you! Wasps, bees and ants will eventually find your food. All of these creatures love sugary water.

Dealing With Pests at the Feeder

If ants infest your feeder, be sure to wash the feeder regularly and move it out into the yard to keep the ants away. Small insects and ants often get into the feeder and drown. Remember to wash the feeder and change the food whenever you see this happening.

Can I Use Cinnamon to Deter Ants?

If your food is on a pole or hanging from a tree branch, you can try sprinkling cinnamon around the base of the pole or tree. Cinnamon’s strong scent can deter ants from climbing up your food bowl. Note that cinnamon does not kill ants, but it can repel them.

How to make a hummingbird garden

First, you need to choose a good location for your hummingbird garden. If possible, you will want to place it near a window so you can see the birds feeding on the flowers from inside the house.

Keep in mind that you need a well-drained area, and the garden needs to receive 6-8 hours of direct sunlight daily. When deciding the size of the garden, remember that you can always start with a small garden and increase it in the coming years if you want.

Choose Plants That Attract Hummingbirds

Here are some good options for attracting hummingbirds to your garden:

Bee Balm
Hollyhock
Fuchsia and Lantana
Butterfly Bush
Rose of Sharon
Japanese Honeysuckle
Trumpet Vine
Cardinal Vine
Silk Tree

Please remember to check if these plants are considered invasive in your area. For example, butterfly bush is considered invasive in many US states.

Combine Flowering Plants With Feeders

You can grow a group of these flowering plants in your garden. When the flowers are in bloom, your garden should have a large number of hummingbirds. As a side benefit, you’ll also see a ton of butterflies!

You can place several feeders around your garden (remember to keep them about 6 feet apart) and attract hummingbirds when the flowers are not in bloom. With a little time and effort, you can create a hummingbird paradise.

Interesting fats about hummingbirds

• Hummingbirds drink nectar from flowers. They know which flowers have nectar with the highest sugar content and prefer to eat them. Hummingbirds are similar to bees in their ability to use sugar in nectar.
• They also eat insects. Most people think that hummingbirds only drink nectar, but this is not true.
  They also eat spiders and insects. It meets their needs for protein, vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Nectar is a poor source of all these elements, so birds can often be seen chasing and catching insects and spiders. They often kidnap and eat brightly colored spiders such as the Carolina writing spider from their webs. In fact, I just sat and watched a hummingbird snatch a spider from its web!
• They are territorial. As mentioned above, hummingbirds are quite territorial. If you set up an artificial feeder and look closely, you may notice a hummingbird hanging around the feeder all the time and chasing other birds that try to drink from the feeder.
• They spend a lot of time resting. Many people believe that these birds spend all day flying, but this is not true. They use a lot of energy to fly, so they sit and rest for a large part of the day. The average hummingbird spends 10-15% of its time feeding and 75-80% perching and digesting food. This means that they will spend most of their lives doing nothing else.
• Hummingbirds can barely walk. Their feet are very weak, so they prefer to fly or just sit.
• Females do all the hatching work. Hummingbirds do not mate for life, and males do not participate in incubating the eggs or raising the young. All this is done by the female bird.
• Their vision and hearing are keen. Both their hearing and sight are much better than the human senses.
• Hummingbirds eat a lot. They eat several meals throughout the day. It’s hard to believe that these birds consume up to 12 times their body weight in nectar per day!
• They are smart. They remember every flower they see, and they know how long it will take to fill the flower with nectar until they can feed again. Additionally, hummingbirds often return within a few hundred yards of where they were born year after year, which means you’ll see the same birds returning to your garden every year!
• They only live in America. Hummingbirds are found as far north as Alaska and as far south as Chile.
• They don’t sing. The hummingbird is one of the few birds that does not sing. Instead, they make a chirping sound.
• Their vision and hearing are keen. Both their hearing and sight are much better than the human senses.
• Hummingbirds eat a lot. They eat several meals throughout the day. It’s hard to believe that these birds consume up to 12 times their body weight in nectar per day!
• They are smart. They remember every flower they see, and they know how long it will take to fill the flower with nectar until they can feed again. Additionally, hummingbirds often return within a few hundred yards of where they were born year after year, which means you’ll see the same birds returning to your garden every year!
• They only live in America. Hummingbirds are found as far north as Alaska and as far south as Chile.
• They don’t sing. The hummingbird is one of the few birds that does not sing. Instead, they make a chirping sound.

Hummingbird statistics are amazing

• Hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world. Most of them weigh between 2 and 20 grams. For reference, a dime weighs 2.5 grams!
• The largest hummingbird species is the giant hummingbird (18-24 g). The smallest b is the hummingbird (less than 2 grams).
• A hummingbird’s heart beats 1,250 times per minute.
• When resting, a hummingbird will take about 250 breaths per minute.
• There are 15 species of hummingbirds in the United States. There are more than 300 species of hummingbirds in its habitat.
• Ecuador has more species of hummingbirds than any other country. There are more than 50 species of hummingbirds in Mexico.
• There are three species of hummingbirds in Canada, and one species in Alaska.
• Hummingbirds can live for 10 years or more, although most live 3 to 5 years.

Aztec Beliefs About Hummingbirds

The ancient Aztecs wore hummingbird amulets made from their feathers (and sometimes from the entire bird). The Aztecs admired the hummingbird, which they considered industrious and active. They believed that hummingbirds were messengers of their gods, so seeing hummingbirds was considered very good luck and a blessing from their gods.

Strange myths and misinformation about hummingbirds

Hummingbirds do not migrate on the backs of geese. No one knows where this legend originated, but it is just a legend.

Hummingbirds do not group together to migrate. They fly south and north by themselves. They migrate in response to hormonal changes in their bodies that begin with shorter daylight hours in the fall. Interestingly, male hummingbirds always return north about two weeks earlier than females, which is the case in almost all hummingbird species.

No matter what you hear, hummingbirds will not get used to artificial feeders and sugar-sweetened water. They will step up when they need to. No, you won’t stop them from migrating if you keep feeding them. When they’re ready to go, they’ll go!