Not everything is human, and the extreme diversity in what creatures need to eat to thrive is the reason we may all exist on the planet at the same time. They have animal needs. Another comment about the bees. They too swarm my feeders at times. In the morning I find dead and "drunk" bees. If it does that to them, I'm sure it harms the birds I am starting to wonder this myself.
We live in California where there are usually plenty of other things to feed on. Then I see on FB Hummy sites dozens of people who are buying heated feeders to feed in snow and ice. Doesn't make sense. If we avoid the sugar, I'm sure it's bad for them as well.
And why would they stay around in the snow? Are they addicted? Does it mess up their internal wirings.
Not shaming, I have 5 feeders myself, just wondering. If it's not good for them, I will plant more flowers instead. I live in Scotland and am back from a birding trip to Costa Rica. I was surprised that the hotels and lodges we stayed at had no feeders out.
When asked about this the tour guide said that they had stopped the practice due to the sugar causing liver cirrhosis. As a retired veterinary surgeon I was a little puzzled, especially as I can find no reference on-line. Comments please. Bettesue: check out the article, "Is Sugar Bad for Hummingbirds? This article answers your question about sugar. Beekeepers feed their bees sugar and wonder why they decimated the bee population.
Refined sugar of any kind has zero nutritional value. These birds need nectar from plants with high amounts of nutrients. Stop poisoning these beautiful birds for your own visual pleasure.
Alicia I've noticed that for about a week I don't see hummingbirds each summer - but then they come back.
I was told it had to do with nesting. I too am worried that sugar might actually be bad for them after learning the link to cancer in humans.
My hope is that we're not harming them just to enjoy more of them. My hummingbirds love my red coral bells that come up every year. I've read you're not supposed to feed hummers brown sugar. Why is that? Can it work in a pinch? It's usually all we have as we try not to use the white sugars. I just want to reiterate the comment Stacey had about feeding white sugar to these beautiful creatures when I avoid it as well. My husband is in the process of putting up a feeder and it seems like a legitimate concern.
Where might I look to find how closely it mimics the nectar that is essential for their life? It makes me wonder if they don't return because of sugar's addictive properties Apologies too because I have no idea what the "rating" refers to!
Hi there, I live in San Francisco and have been attracting Anna's hummingbirds to my balcony I live in an apartment using the Hummzinger feeder and a four-parts water, one-part sugar solution. I've been changing the solution once a week and seeing lots of hummers. This week I saw none, which was unusual and when I went out to check the feeder I was shocked to see it had black mold in it!!! I think with the warming temps my once a week cleaning was no longer often enough.
Lesson learned!! I feel so terrible If I put a new clean solution out there, will they ever come back? How will they know that I've cleaned it and that it's now "safe" again? Thanks for any insight you can provide. Is Sugar Bad for Hummingbirds? Am I being too much of a purist? So when making your hummingbird food recipe solution, don't go weaker than the ratio of sugar to water.
Hummingbirds can't digest it as efficiently. This mold fungus can give the hummingbirds a fatal tongue infection. Because this was a common question, we dedicated an entire page to answering this as well as why you should stop buying hummingbird nectar. Jann Asked: Thank you for your Hummingbird food recipe. I have just bought some new feeders and will be trying it out for the first time tomorrow. My question: I have seen some commercially available syrup preparations which are red.
Is there any advantage to putting in food coloring to make the syrup red? My feeders are of clear plastic with red bases and little yellow 'flowers' at the access tubes. Jill Also Asked: I heard the red dye in store bought food causes a problem with their kidneys after so long?
Or have the companies changed the dye in the food mixture? There is no need to make red nectar and although I still to this day have not found SOLID, scientific evidence that red dye is harmful to hummingbirds, it's better and simpler to just leave it out. It's artificial, not natural, period. Purchasing hummingbird food is a marketing rip-off. All you need is regular, white granulated sugar and water to make your own at the ratio which is fairly cheap.
Your feeder mostly likely has red parts on it, either the base or top or both. Put it up and they will come. If you are having trouble initially attracting hummingbirds to your feeder, then you may want to exaggerate the red by adding red ribbons, red flowers, red-anything to lure them in. If there are hummingbirds cruising around in your neighborhood and your feeder is visible, they will find it and return often without needing red food coloring.
Susan Asked: Hello, I was looking at your recipe for hummingbird food and have a question. I have organic raw sugar made from evaporated sugar cane juice.
I'm at work and I don't have the exact specifications. Answer: Unrefined sugar from sugar cane has iron, mineral salts and other minerals that are not present in white granulated sugar only sucrose nor in natural flower nectar. While a better choice for humans, the added minerals in unrefined sugar may have an adverse affect on hummingbirds.
Brown sugar has molasses added to it which also contains iron and other minerals. Plain, white granulated sugar is best for making your hummingbird solution. Ruth Asked: I live in S. I read a few of your articles on how to make the nectar, which the recipe I use is the ratio of water to sugar. I'm not so sure. Thoughts please? Answer: Table sugar sucrose is a disaccharide made from two simple sugar glucose and fructose molecules, which is a closer match to what hummingbirds find in flowers.
Corn syrup contains dextrose and high fructose or high maltose sugars, but also includes combinations of more complex sugars. Any portion of the simple sugars found in corn syrup could be absorbed more quickly without waiting for the digestive system to break them down. I don't know where you intend to buy corn syrup, but be aware that light Karo and Golden Barrel syrups also contains salt and vanilla. Also studies on hummingbird food preferences show that in high concentrations, they prefer table sugar.
We have nephew that thinks we like the stuff and he keeps sending it! We are currently enjoying the annual migration of hummingbirds. We don't get many but sometimes we have two or three at a time so I put feeders on both sides of our house to eliminate squabbling. Answer: The dark cane syrup has high amounts of iron than regular white granulated sugar does not and can possibly be harmful to hummingbirds so we advise against using dark cane syrup, sorghum molasses, etc.
Try mixing it with butter makes the taste milder, good on toast, biscuits, pancakes , use to make caramel corn, or tell your nephew, "Thanks, we have enough cane syrup now to last us a long time, we'll let you know when we need more! Lauren Asked: Can agave nectar be used instead of sugar in hummingbird feeders? If so, what would be the recipe? Answer: Good question. Agave "nectar" which is made from the plant's sap rather than its flowers contains no sucrose, the sugar that hummingbirds prefer and the predominant sugar in the nectar of hummingbird-pollinated flowers.
So I would stick to using simple white sugar water to sugar ratio. It's what hummingbirds require for energy and most closely replicates what they naturally get from flower nectar. Paul Similarly Asked: I was watching a ruby-throated hummingbird at my nectar feeder, and saw him fly over to a tray feeder I had provided with grape jelly for Baltimore Orioles. He seemed to be eating the thin juice that had pooled in the corner of the feeder.
Cranberry juice especially is much too acidic. Juice will attract more ants and bees to your feeders as well. The primary sugar found in natural flower nectar is sucrose. Fruit juice sugar is fructose which is similar, but not the same. Keep it simple and only feed hummingbirds the water to plain white sugar solution.
Use only granulated white cane sugar and fresh water. Store bought hummingbird food contains preservatives; avoid it. Never use honey which is fatal to hummingbirds; do not use food coloring, artificial sweeteners or other forms of sugar. Make sure the mixture is at room temperature before hanging the feeder. Feeder location and care: Hang the feeder in a shady area.
Sun will cause rapid spoilage of the sugar solution. Select a spot that is safe from cats and other predators. If you put a feeder close to a reflective window, hummingbirds might fly into the glass. The feeder must be emptied and thoroughly washed in hot water but not hot enough to damage plastic parts according to the following schedule: in cool weather below 60 degrees F , clean and refill with fresh sugar water after three days,.
In warmer weather , the feeder must be cleaned after two days. In hot weather above 80 degrees F , daily cleaning might be necessary, Use a bottlebrush to scrub all surfaces. Rinse completely, making sure that every speck of foreign material is washed away.
If the feeder contains removable plastic feeding flowers, these must be taken out and scrubbed as well. Hummingbirds put their tongues into a feeder to drink; sugar water is conducive to the growth of pathogens.
If there is mold, slimy accumulation or cloudy water in a feeder, hummingbirds can die from using the feeder.
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