Hummingbirds and Nectar
Flower
nectar is the principal natural food of hummingbirds. If you provide
hummingbird feeders, you will need to make your own artificial
"nectar." Since hummingbirds also eat insects, you don't need to
purchase expensive commercial hummingbird nectars that have added
vitamins and minerals. A sugar solution is adequate.
Recipe:
To make sugar solution for hummingbirds, add one part sugar to four
parts boiling water (boil the water before measuring, because some
water will evaporate away in the process). When the mixture is cool it
is ready for use. You can store extra sugar water in your refrigerator
for up to one week, but left longer it may become moldy.
Don't add red food coloring to the sugar solution—it is unnecessary and
possibly harmful to the birds. Red portals on the feeder, or even a red
ribbon on top, will attract the hummingbirds just as well.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Video © Sam Crowe/CLO
Important Tips
- Change sugar solution every three to five days to prevent mold and deadly fermentation.
- Clean the hummingbird feeder often. Visit our Feeder Maintenance page to find out how.
- NEVER use honey in hummingbird feeders. It readily grows mold that can be dangerous—even fatal—to hummingbirds.
- Do not put any kind of oil around feeding portals to deter insects. Oil might contaminate the nectar, or get on the birds' plumage ruining its insulative properties. If bees, wasps, or ants become a problem, try moving the feeder or see our Feeder Pests and Predators: Insects page for other solutions.