Humming Bird Feeders

There are many different Humming bird feeders to chose among today, from basic plastic basins to elaborately shaped and intricately ornamented hand made pieces of art. Plastic, ceramics, glass and metal are four of the most commonly used Humming bird feeder materials. When you select a Humming bird feeder, you should naturally pick one that you find aesthetically appealing, but there are other things to take into consideration as well such as how easy the Humming bird feeder will be to maintain in the long run. After all, no man made Humming bird feeder could ever outshine the beauty of the wild Humming birds and your Humming birds will not care whether you invested hundreds of dollars in a high-end handcrafted Humming bird feeder or simply picked up a plastic one at your nearest garden depot.

Your first priority when selecting a Humming bird feeder for your garden or patio should instead be to find one that is cleverly designed when it comes to practical issues rather than focusing on easstetics alone. You might for instance wish to refrain from getting a dripping Humming bird feeder, since this design will increase the risk of attracting ants to the feeder. A good Humming bird feeder should also be easy to take apart, clean and refill. A Humming bird feeder must be cleaned frequently to keep the content suitable as Humming bird food. Generally speaking, most people find the basin style Humming bird feeder a little easier to refill than the inverted bottle style feeder, but this does not mean that the inverted bottle Humming bird feeder is hard to handle. It all comes down to personal preferences. Take a close look at the various designs in the store and try to imagine how it would be like to clean and refill them.

Some Humming bird feeders have perches for the Humming bird to sit on, while others are perch-less. Photographers that want to take pictures of hovering Humming birds rather than sitting Humming birds will usually go for the perch-less Humming bird feeder since this type of feeder causes the Humming bird to hover in front of the feeder throughout the entire feeding session. Hovering is however an extremely calorie consuming activity and the Humming birds will therefore truly appreciate the ability to sit down and sip Humming bird food until they are satisfied. A hovering Hummer bird is always near starvation and every calorie counts. Obesity is not an issue for the Humming birds!

Humans have been spellbound by the flamboyant and energetic Humming birds for thousands of years, but the first commercially produced Humming bird feeders did not show up in stores until the 20th century. The first commercially produced Humming bird feeder was designed by an American inventor named Webster. Today you can purchase your Humming bird feeder in garden depots, department stores, pet shops etcetera. Hand-made Humming bird feeders are sometimes offered in craft shops. You can also take advantage of the Internet and browse through a wide range of different Humming bird feeder designs online and have them delivered to you by mail

Humming Bird Food

Humming Bird picture by Michelle Lynn Reynolds

Humming birds are usually spotted when they enter our gardens to feed from brightly coloured flower blossoms, and this makes it tempting to assume that Humming bird food consists of nectar alone. The truth is however that most Humming birds use the calorie rich nectar to become more enduring insect hunters. They depend on insects to provide them with protein and necessary nutrients. When the Humming bird is raising its offspring, it must catch even more insects since the young Humming birds needs this type of food to grow. Humming bird food is therefore made up by both nectar and insects.

The Humming bird is known to be especially found of red flowers and can be very investigative when it comes across other red coloured items. This does not mean that only red flowers are considered Humming bird food by the bird; Humming birds will happily feed from a wide range of different coloured blossoms. Many people purchase man made Humming bird food containers in hope of drawing Humming birds to their garden, but planting flowers that are known to attract Humming birds will work just as well. You can naturally also combine both methods and hang a man made Humming bird feeder next to some colourful and nectar filled plants that can be easily spotted by passing Humming birds.

Which plant species to recommend as Humming bird food will naturally depend on where you live. Humming birds can be found from Alaska and Canada to the southernmost tip of Argentina. The Humming birds are for instance known to appreciate many different types of fuchsias, verbenas, heliconias, penstemons and bromeliads. The Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is just one example of a popular garden plant that will be appreciated by humans and Humming birds alike. The Coral Honeysuckle is a drought-tolerant and comparatively low maintenance vine that produces plenty of red, trumpet shaped flowers. Due to the form of the flowers, the plant is also known as Trumpet Honeysuckle. The Coral Honeysuckle is not only a popular Humming bird food ;it is also loved by mockingbirds, bluebirds and cedar waxwings that come to feed on its red berries during fall. The Humming birds’ beak is aptly suited for extracting nectar from the trumpet shaped Coral Honeysuckle flower.

If you have Humming birds in your garden, you should ideally refrain from using pesticides since the Hummingbirds need small insects as Humming bird food . The Humming birds can also be poisoned by the pesticides. Keep in mind that Humming birds are very small animals. A dose of pesticide lethal enough to kill a large insect might be enough to kill a Humming bird too, or make it really sick.

Humming birds are more or less constantly searching for suitable Humming bird food since their high metabolism can make them starve to death within hours without food, provided that they are flying around. A resting Humming bird will require less Humming bird food and can even place itself in a semi-hibernating state called torpor to conserve energy. During torpor, the bird will breathe really slow and decrease its heartbeat down to 50 and 180 beats per minute. This can be compared to the 1260 heartbeats once measured in a flying Blue-throated hummingbird (Lampornis clemenciae).

Humming Bird Nectar Recipe

Humming bird nectar recipe

Boil some water and leave it to cool off completely. Measure the water after it has been boiled and cooled, since plenty of water will evaporate during this process. Stir down one part white sugar for every four parts of boiled water.

Humming bird nectar recipe without chlorine

I always use boiled water in my humming bird nectar recipe, since boiling with make chlorine evaporate from the tap water.

In most parts of the world, chlorine is added to tap water to prevent bacterial growth, and since we do not know the exact effect of chlorine on Humming birds it is a good idea to remove it, just to be sure. Even low amounts of chlorine might be enough to harm a small Hummingbird. You can also make chlorine escape by simply leaving the water in an open bowl over night. Please note that boiling the water will not prevent the bird food from fermenting. Boiling does kill fermenting bacteria, but new bacteria will always get in to the Humming bird feeder from the Hummingbirds.

Humming bird nectar recipe with distilled water

Distilled water lack a wide range of minerals that are found in non-distilled water, and might therefore be unsuitable for a humming bird nectar recipe since it might lead to electrolyte deficiencies if your Humming birds drink a lot of it. Some people still use distilled water, but add some sodium-free salt to their humming bird nectar recipe. Sodium-free salt will add potassium chloride to the bird food and bring the salt content up to level with the nectar found in flowers. Ordinary table salt contains sodium and is not recommended. The easiest way of not having to think about this problem is naturally to use tap water in your humming bird nectar recipe.

Humming bird nectar recipe with red dye

It used to be very popular to add red dye to Humming bird nectar, and several companies still sell readymade Humming bird nectar with red dye in it. I have however decided to refrain from including any form or dye in our humming bird nectar recipe, since the red dye is completely unnecessary. Once your Humming birds have understood that there is tasty nectar to be found inside the Humming bird feeder, they will not care about its colour.

The colour red can be used to make the Hummingbirds notice a new feeder, but there is no need to colour the actual nectar. Simply purchase a red feeder or put some red stickers on a plain feeder. (Do not tie flying red ribbons from the feeder since birds might become entangled.) You can also place your feeder next to some strikingly coloured flowers that will catch the eye of the Humming bird.

Whether or not red dye is actually harmful to Hummingbirds is still under a lot of debate. Research indicates that certain types of red dye might increase the risk for the bird to develop tumours. More studies are however necessary before we can know for sure whether this is true or not. Since red dye is not necessary to attract Humming birds, and provide no nutritional value, I see no use for including red dye in my own humming bird nectar recipe.