Do you love catching the sight of hummingbirds fluttering around your garden? Check out five of our favorite hummingbird feeders to attract these little beauties to your yard.
We also include best practices so you’ll know where to place your feeders and what to put in them for best results.
Adding Flowers and Feeders to Attract Hummingbirds
It is easy to attract hummingbirds to your garden. Just plant hummingbird flowers, hang hummingbird feeders, and provide water, perches, and nest sites.
Hummingbirds have a long, slender beak, suitable for reaching into flowers with tube-type openings. They lap with their slender tongues, drinking nectar.
Hummingbird flowers don’t have to be bright red, although you will probably enjoy the splash of color. What hummingbirds really want is flowers that have a lot of nectar. When you provide a hummingbird feeder, you are simulating their natural food, so many feeders incorporate red – a flower color that often indicates a good source of nectar.
Five Best Hummingbird Feeders for Your Yard and Garden
We’ve compared dozens of products and found the best hummingbird feeders based on five important qualities: easy to clean, access to feeding ports, overall ease of use, ability to fill without spilling, and general customer satisfaction.
1. Perky Pet Looking Glass Hummingbird Feeder
Classic cooper bird feeder with four feeding stations
If you are looking for something with understated elegance, then this is the hummingbird feeder for you. It is a good match for copper top bird feeders if you already have a collection of seed feeders in your garden.
The tinted glass container is reminiscent of frosted glass light fixtures and is twined around with a delicate copper vine and leaves to create the hanger. There are four copper feeding ports with an integrated perch, in case the hummers want to sit to dine. The container unscrews from the feeding station for easy clean-up and refill.
If you love the way copper shines in your garden, the Perky Pet Looking Glass Hummingbird Feeder is a great choice.
2. Daisy Vase Vintage Glass Hummingbird Feeder
Large capacity holds a whopping 24 ounces of nectar
Made from beautifully tinted vintage glass, this inverted vase-shaped feeder will be a conversation piece for your porch or garden.
The screw-on feeding station has four red daisy feeding ports. The vase has a wide mouth, and the feeding station snaps apart for easy cleaning and refill. If you have a lot of hummers, this is ideal because it holds 24 fluid ounces.
The “foot” of the base is bracketed by a wire hanger, so the whole affair looks like an elegant bouquet vase that has been repurposed as a feeder and is complemented by the brushed copper finish on the feeding station.
If you like a bird feeder with vintage flair, the Daisy Vase Glass Hummingbird Feeder would make a pretty statement in your backyard.
3. Hummingbird Protein Feeder by Duncraft
Uses ripe fruit & discarded peels to attract & fruit flies – a hummingbird favorite!
In addition to nectar, hummingbirds also eat tiny insects, such as fruit flies. When the little hummers hatch, they are fed almost exclusively on insects. The high protein helps them to grow and develop properly.
You can help your hummingbird families by providing a fruit-fly smorgasbord. Hang the hummingbird protein feeder, an elegant fruit fly incubator, near your nectar dispenser.
Place a banana skin or other fruit peel to get the process started. The adult hummers can rest on the wrap-around perch, and quickly capture a full meal or grab some fruit flies to go for the little ones back in the nest.
As a bonus, the ripening fruit will also attract butterflies to your feeder. Just give it a few weeks to get started, since the fruit needs a little time to marinate before the birds and butterflies take notice.
4. Red Hanging Sphere Hummingbird Feeder with Red Perch
Four feeding ports and a clear glass dish make this feeder easy to clean and easy to fill
Hummingbirds, like many feathered creatures, are territorial. The red hanging sphere bird feeder is the minimalist version of nectar dispensers. It is a shallow dish with a red-tinted top to attract hummers.
Each dish has 4 feeding ports and holds 3 ¼ ounces of nectar. However, you can hang added dishes from the bottom of the original or spread your feeders out around the yard to help prevent tiny territorial wars.
The sturdy wraparound frame makes it easy for hummers to spread out around the dispenser and makes it resistant to damage from high winds.
5. Hummingbird Elixir by Duncraft
Bright Red Antique Style Glass Feeder with Easy to Fill Wide Mouth Opening
The hummingbird elixir is a beautiful feeder made from a red, glass bottle styled like an antique depression glass bottle. The bottom is encircled by a sturdy wire hanger.
The feeder is made from old-penny colored copper, with red floral dispensers. The wire hanger falls to one side to allow the bottle to sit on its bottom for refilling, and the whole thing comes apart for easy cleaning.
When filled and hung, the red glass glows like a gem. There are five feeding stations, and it holds a generous 13 oz. to keep your hummingbird population happy.
Best Practices For Feeding Hummingbirds
Just placing a hummingbird feeder full of nectar solution won’t necessarily attract hummingbirds. Here are some great ways to invite more of these cute little birds to your feeders.
Location
Find a location that the little birds will like, such as a shady porch or a drape of high-hanging vines. Bees and wasps also like the sweet solution, but they prefer to feed in full sun, so placing the feeder in a shaded area will help discourage them.
Cleaning
Clean the feeder and change the nectar regularly. It doesn’t take long for sugar water to ferment in summer. If the hummers drink the spoiled nectar, it can cause a fungus to grow on their tongues which can cause starvation. When it comes to hummingbird health, freshness counts.
You can wash the feeders using a vinegar and water solution, or even bleach. Avoid detergent. Rinse well before adding fresh nectar. If you are throwing away a lot of nectar, reduce the amount for the next round.
Want to Get a Closer Look?
To dispense the nectar, you can purchase hanging feeders, hand-held, or window feeders. If you wish to observe the little hummers often, the window feeders are ideal.
But did you know you can train them to feed from your hand? To coax them to be hand-fed, it takes patience, but what a thrill!
First, get them started with hanging feeders, then stand near the hanging feeders. Finally, hold a feeder in your hand in the same general area as the hanging feeders. Once your hummers recognize and trust you, it is a short step from hanging feeders to hand feeding.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best hummingbird food?
You can purchase commercially prepared nectar, or you can make your own hummingbird nectar using cane or beet sugar – the kind you would use in cake, pie, or your tea. Avoid brown sugar, turbinado, honey, or any type of artificial sweetener.
To make a homemade hummingbird food: Mix 1-part sugar to 4 parts water, and bring to a boil on the stove to kill any lurking pathogens. Boil for about three minutes.
How do I get more hummingbirds to come to my feeder?
Hummingbirds aren’t necessarily attracted to the bright red colors, but it does help since many red flowers have high levels of nectar. Most commercial feeders have red on them somewhere, but if yours doesn’t seem to be doing the job, tie red ribbons nearby where they will flutter in the breeze.
Are wasps attracted to hummingbird feeders?
Answer: Yes, unfortunately, they are. However, wasps and bees like to feed in full sun. You can help prevent this problem by hanging your hummingbird feeder in a shaded area.
Summary
Select one of our favorite hummingbird feeders to increase your chances of catching one of these fast-moving birds in flight.
Hummingbirds are amazing creatures that have appeared in legend and history. Their bright, jewel colors add grace notes to your lawn and garden. They also feed on small insects – the ones so tiny you don’t really see them, and they are important pollinators for many plants.
For super hummingbird watching, hang the feeder outside a window where you can easily see it without startling these shy avian creatures. While the feeders need to be cleaned often, these little jewels of the sky are definitely worth the trouble.
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