Chances are, if you are reading this post, you love hummingbirds. There are over 300 species of hummingbird, and if you live in North America, you probably have some in your neighborhood.
While some migrate to Southern Mexico and parts of South America in the winter, come spring, they know just where they left the best flower nectar behind! If you love hummingbirds and would like to see more in your garden, there are a couple of easy steps on how to attract hummingbirds and convince them to stick around all spring, summer and fall.
Make DIY hummingbird feeder projects to see the tiny winged beauties show up almost as fast as you can hang them out. Learn how to make hummingbird nectar that is safe, learn the best plants and flowers they love, and even learn how to make hummingbird swings, fountains and perches! Create a hummingbird haven and have them coming back all season long!
How To Make Hummingbird Food
The first step to attracting hummingbirds to your yard is to provide a safe hummingbird nectar.
Hummingbird Nectar Recipe
This homemade hummingbird food is the only accepted healthy food that you can offer your feathered friends.
1 Cup White Sugar
4 Cups Water
- Bring water to just before a boil, then turn off and add sugar. Stir till well dissolved. Cool completely. DO NOT add red food coloring to our hummingbird food. While there is a controversy surrounding both its effectiveness and safety, we are firmly on the side of no red dye. There is a lot of evidence that the red dye is harmful to hummingbirds.
- If you want a fast way to get cooled nectar, heat just one cup of water, and dissolve sugar in that cup. Then add three cups of cold water.
- After cooling, fill your feeders with enough nectar to last 2-7 days, depending on the outside temperature. The warmer the weather is, the shorter the food will last before growing bacteria.
Nectar Don’ts
DO NOT use :
- Honey
- Brown Sugar
- Red Dye
- Artificial Sweeteners
Here is a general chart on how often you should change your sugar water, based on our experience. Remember to clean your feeders well when you change the water, using hot water, and vinegar if necessary.
Outdoor Temp Days
Under 70 7
71-75 6
76-80 5
81-84 4
85-88 3
89-92 2
93+ Daily
DIY Hummingbird Feeder Tutorials
If you want to learn how to make a hummingbird feeder at home, we have some great step by step tutorials. From using wine bottles to recycled plastic, here are some great feeder tutorials to try!
We found two awesome and unique DIY hummingbird feeder projects at ‘Birds and Blooms‘, This first one is made from PVC pie and copper wire. They are colorful and fun, and a perfect match for the personality of these little winged creatures.
Take a glass jar, some polymer clay, some wire and a glass bead and you have this super creative, pretty hummingbird feeder. Also from ‘Birds and Blooms‘. This would be great to make with the kids!
This DIY hummingbird feeder is made using a recycled wine bottle and a feeder adapter tube. Step by step directions, and even tips for how to deal with a leaking feeder. From ‘Container Water Gardens‘.
Make a crafty DIY hummingbird feeder project with this DIY from ‘Lovely Indeed‘. Using a clear bottle and a feeder tube adapter, it is hung from this pretty macrame hanger. And yep, she teaches you how to make the hanger too!
This little mini DIY hummingbird feeder was made by ‘Pretty Handy Girl‘ from recycled spice jars and jute string. So easy, inexpensive and fast to make! You could be feeding your hummers in just a few minutes!
A cardboard basket, an empty water bottle and colorful craft Washi tape make up this pretty little feeder from ‘Buzzfeed‘. It doesn’t even look like a hummingbird feeder, but it is! This is a far cry from the generic red plastic feeders you find at the hardware store.
Want a super cheap feeder DIY? Jump on over to ‘The Crafting Chicks‘ and check out how to recycle an empty water bottle, a couple of plastic straws and a little craft foam to make the red flowers. The red flowers actually attract the hummingbirds, so make sure you don’t omit that part of this project. You can make this feeder almost for free!
Hummingbird Swing or Perch
This hummingbird perch its the perfect little rest stop for your hummer buds. Since these birds can be very territorial and aggressive towards other birds, having another place away from the feeder for birds to alight will help keep a little more peace in your garden. Using copper pipe, ‘The Navage Patch‘ put together a full tutorial for their pretty perch.
Hummingbird Fountain and Baths DIY
Add water! Shallow dishes of water are appreciated by these little wonders that are in near constant motion. If you are a budding photographer, providing water also gives you the opportunity to get photos of the birds at rest… usually not an easy task! Here is a DIY bird bath that is just the right depth for hummingbirds, from ‘Amazing Birds’ via ‘Home Stories A to Z‘.
Plants That Attract Hummingbirds
Grow plants that naturally attract hummingbirds. Flowers with long throats or large amounts of nectar are ideal. While they are attracted strongly to red and orange blossoms, any color will make a hungry hummingbird happy, so don’t feel tied to that. Some of their favorites?
- Butterfly Bush
- Foxglove
- Trumpet Vine
- Honeysuckle
- Penstemon
- Fuchsia
- Bee Balm
- Hollyhocks
- Cleome
Tips to Attract Hummingbirds
- Provide some open space in your yard, hummingbirds like to be in the open to protect themselves against predators.
- Replace the hummingbird food every three days to keep it fresh.
- Use Vaseline on the hanging cord to keep ants from getting into the nectar.
- Remember, just like any bird feeder, it can take a little while for them to learn to trust you and your garden. Keep replacing the food, and eventually, they will come.
- To get good photos, learn your birds’ routine and have a tripod set up ahead of time with a remote shutter release. Or, a really fast telephoto lens! The photo below was taken by Steve!
Facts About Hummingbirds
- Think the hummingbirds you love in your yard know you? Chances are good, they do. Hummingbirds have the largest brain in proportion to their bodies, than any other bird. There are studies that have found they can remember how to get back to any neighborhood after their migration, which is hundreds of miles each year. And that they remember every flower they visit, and how long to wait before they revisit it for the nectar to have time to regenerate. And yes, that they can recognize humans who feed them.
- They are the ultimate stunt flyer! They can fly up to 30 MPH and dive up to 60 MPH, and fly in just about any direction, including backwards. Their wings beat between 70-200 times per second.
- They have more feathers than any other bird, except one. Can you believe it’s the penguin?!!
- Hummingbirds have no sense of smell, but an amazing sense of sight and they can see better than you and I, and in every color.
- On an average day, a hummingbird will consume double its body weight in food.
Do you have hummingbirds in your yard? What’s your favorite hummingbird experience? I have one! I tell the story in our post about our trip to a desert nursery. Worth the read just for the sweet hummingbird story! Share yours!
If you loved learning about how to attract hummingbirds with DIY hummingbird feeders and more, we think you will love our post on 10 Creative DIY Bird Feeders!
Butterfly bush shouldn’t be on this list OR sold by the dozens in garden centers. Sure, it looks great, but it’s invasive and is destroying native habitat. Please don’t recommend it to anyone under any circumstances.
I have several hummingbirds. Each year when they return one of them come to my glass front door. I sit in a chair across from it so I see it. That is when I know to put feeders out. Love my little goup of hummers!!
Thanks for your reply Kathy. Actually I did see three hummingbirds feed from it so maybe there is a whole flock. LOL! I checked for leaks and didn’t find any. Thanks again.
I am new at the hummingbird feeders routine. I have one that must be filled every evening b/c when I get home from work, it is completely dry. I have only seen one bird “drink” from the feeder so I have a hard time imagining that single bird using all of the “food”. Unless there are multiple birds feeding from it and I am not seeing it. I am wondering if this is normal b/c you had mentioned in your article to fill the feeders appx. every 3 days. If I have to do it every night; this could get expensive. Should I wait until the third day to refill even if it is empty? Suggestions?
Can you tell if your feeder is leaking or dripping? It should not run out that quickly unless you have a whole flock of hummingbirds living in your backyard, and I think you would notice that! You don’t HAVE to keep it constantly filled, they will come back and check every few days… And making your own nectar is a lot cheaper too!
Dave mentioned using distilled water. While I’m sure it’s better than water straight from the tap, know that if you let your tap water sit for a few days before using it, some of the chemicals in it will either settle out or evaporate. While not perfect, it seems to me it would be better than using water straight from the tap. JMHO
I hate doing this and my intentions aren’t to be a jerk but….
This whole NO RED FOOD COLORING crusade is COMPLETE NONSENSE!
Let me explain why…
But before that just know that I’m addressing this from a completely medical, etc… standpoint as I have 3 degrees in vet med and worked for over a decade with exotic animals such as birds. The point is I look at it clearly and not emotionally… we all love our hummers so just understand that.
First of all “no” you don’t need it to attract the hummers So really it doesn’t serve any purpose UNLESS it’s for other reasons. Here’s an example: They love the taste of grenadine mixed in. Now usually you can make your own without the red dye but there are times when pomegranates aren’t available and store bought has some red dye in it. I have no issue with this since it’s so diluted that it’s really a non issue either way.
But here’s the deal… back in the 60’s there was an article written about this and it was an opinion piece… nothing more, based upon a premature conclusion of dye food coloring. At the time they were linking health issues to food colorings so the article had some “merit” at the time. The conclusion was that food coloring were a health issue with all the colorings EXCEPT RED which is why it’s still available today. Anyway people freaked out prematurely and it’s never stopped.
But here’s the problem with that conclusion… They have been trying to prove this as a fact (harmful) now for almost 50 years and yet there’s been NO evidence or conclusions to support the theory that it does harm… basically and realistically it’s an urban legend at this point.
Of course people want what’s best for the hummers but the truth is that passing along this myth does NOTHING to help them. Really if we want whats best for them then we should take all the feeders down and let them live and feed as god intended them to (without our intervention).
The kicker is that most of you are raving mad at me at this point but following most of the suggestions here is actually hypocritical because some of these methods are WAY worse for the hummers than the red dye.
Examples:
Water: if you’re using tap water and not purified water or distilled water (spring water or non-purified water doesn’t count as its tap water). Think about the tap water you’re using… It’s absolutely packed full of chemicals and more than likely overly re-used water that’s wayyyyyyyyy worse than red dye.
Boiling the water when making nectar: This is ABSOLUTELY THE WRONG way to make nectar. When you boil the water and sugar it immidiately starts the fermintation process which not only makes it go bad faster but it also is much harder for them to break it down not to mention mold and bacteria will grow much more rapidly in boiled nectar and as soon as it’s poured into a feeder it’s immediately contaminated and if you’ve boiled the nectar then you’re giving the bad things a massive head start… which again is worse than red dye.
Don’t boil it! mix it with cold to room temp water and just shake it and refrigerate it.
They don’t need the extra minerals either as one poster said. Mostly nectar is used for energy to get food not food itself and as far as I was taught have a special way of processing things, nectar basically goes in and the energy is absorbed only and nearly immediately the rest is shot back out the tail pipe.
Anyway, the bottom line is the red dye thing is a myth, nothing more and IMO people need to STOP passing on this false information and instead worry and promote more the “proper” ways to make and use nectar and for people to understand that preaching against the red while not using common sense with the rest IS ACTUALLY DOING THEM HARM.
While I’m in no way suggesting you go fill your feeders with red dye, I’m just saying there’s a lot more to this then gets discussed and those preaching about how bad red dye is are usually the ones that are actually feeding them the most chemicals and bacteria.. think people think ;) ~
Thx for the opinion and information Dave!
Sure :)
I shouldn’t write these so late at night… I sound so mean lol
thank you Dave for the real truth about our fine feathered friends the hummingbirds. thank you.
I use Celestial Seasonings Red Zinger tea bags for color and added herbs! Hummingbirds also love hibiscus. You can use Badia brand hibiscus tea as well. It only contains hibiscus and is fairly inexpensive. I use one tea bag per four cup batch. Most importantly, the hummingbirds come back year after year for more!
I’m also against red food coloring! One of my favorite plants for attracting hummingbirds is actually a tree – a mimosa tree! If you’ve seen them alongside the highway and interstate where you live you can be assured of growing them in your own yard with success. (Officially they are hardy in Zones 6-9.) I had two large mimosas that I had grown from seed in my yard at my last house and it broke my heart when I had to move. The hummingbirds all flocked to my yard every summer and the dark pink blossoms smelled very similar to roses.
I really enjoy all the hummingbirds, I currently have 10 feeders and have to fill them daily. I keep adding new plants yearly to my garden just for them. They really love the sprinkler and I think some of my neatest photos are of them might be taking baths. Also they really enjoy our ash pile. I think they visit it almost daily. It is amazing to watch them, especially when the babies arrive, and when I’m wearing bright colors they are always flying right by me. In the past couple of years some orioles have been visiting as well. I need to invest in some feeders for them, they try to take over the hummers feeders and boy they make a mess.
I “do” use the commercial mix, BUT, only the kind that has the extra minerals in it. If I can’t find that later in the season, I do go back to your recipe of the sugar and water only mixture. Love your site.
Remember to try and keep your feeders out of the direct sun…water heats up and definitely NO to red dye
We agree, no dye! Ours work great without dye, and we have never added it!
Please add Salvias to your list of favorite hummingbird plants. They like ALL kinds of salvias, but a few of their most FAVORITE varieties are Hot Lips, Black & Blue, and Pineapple Sage!
Absolutely, consider it added!
Re: red food coloring for Hummingbirds: NO!
Red food dye is not safe and is NOT necessary for the birds to literally flock to feeders. WHY add something that is completely unnecessary and could actually cause harm?
I have never added it, and Hummingbirds are always attracted via the red in the feeder itself, but my guess is that they would find the food even if there were no red colors anywhere anyway. I only use non GMO cane sugar, as well. Why give these tiny beauties GMO’s?
thanks for the list of Hummingbirds’ favorite flowers! they will be on my list of things to plant!~
Thanks Carol. I’m glad you agree! That is what we were saying as well. DO NOT use red food coloring!
Kind of proof that people will listen to anything.. Definitely no dye and nothing with gmos. Wonder if municipal water would hurt them long term with the fluoride?