This healthy hummingbird nectar recipe and glass feeders will keep those pretty hummingbirds coming back to your garden year after year.
We have 4 species of hummingbirds that visit Joybilee Farm each spring — rufous hummingbirds, calliope hummingbirds, and black-chinned come regularly. Some summers we’ve also seen ruby-throated hummers. They raise their babies in the spruce and pine trees around our log house. It’s delightful watching them buzz back and forth with their territorial antics. They let us know when the feeders are empty by coming to the dining room window or visiting us on the deck. When we fill the feeders with our healthy hummingbird nectar recipe, they come back to say, “Thank you”.
Inviting hummingbirds to your garden by providing nectar, ample red flowers, and hummingbird habitat is one of the easiest ways to connect with nature. Hummingbirds are an easy bird for children to identify. And their antics delight young and old, alike.
When you supply hummingbird nectar and flowers that meet their habitat needs, you’ll have them coming back to your garden every spring.
Not your momma’s hummingbird nectar recipe
In the old days, housewives would boil water, mix in white sugar, and red food colouring, and fill up a plastic hummingbird feeder with the syrup. But things have changed. The sugar we have today is genetically modified and contain pesticide and herbicide residues. The plastic feeders give off BPA, a hormone-disrupting chemical when they are exposed to direct sunlight. The red food coloring is carcinogenic. No one wants to harm the hummers when we put out our hummingbird feeders. But what can we do?
Here are some tips for healthier hummingbird nectar
- Use glass instead of plastic feeders
- Omit the red food coloring — use a red bottle instead
- Use organic sugar or cane sugar instead of GMO beet sugar.
- No need to boil the water first, the hummingbirds introduce bacteria from their bills anyway.
- Use filtered water instead of chlorinated, fluoridated tap water
- Change the water every two or three days when the temperatures are high to prevent fermentation and mold
How to attract hummingbirds to your garden
- Plant red flowers like bee balm, hollyhock, columbine, and fuchsia
- Plant tubular flowers like lupines, daylilies, petunias, and salvia
- Offer nectar in several feeders around the garden
- Offer nesting sites by planting conifers near the feeders.
Red Bee Balm or Monarda is especially attractive and easy to grow. It is hardy to zone 3, perennial, and beautiful. The plant has medicinal benefits, much like oregano. From the mint family, it spreads easily and comes back every year.
What to avoid when making hummingbird nectar
- Raw honey
- Genetically modified sugar
- brown sugar
- Non-organic sugar due to the presence of glyphosate, herbicides, and pesticides
- Molasses
- Artificial sweeteners
- Stevia
- Commercial hummingbird nectar powders
- Food coloring and dyes
Healthiest hummingbird nectar recipe
This easy homemade hummingbird nectar recipe has only 2 ingredients. It is easy to mix up as you need it and doesn’t require any special equipment.
Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup organic sugar*
- 2 cups of filtered water or natural spring water
Directions:
- There’s no need to boil or sterilize the water or the hummingbird feeders. Wash the hummingbird feeder before you fill it to minimize bacterial contamination. Rinse well to remove all soap residue. There is no need to rinse in bleach water. Bleach is very difficult to remove from the inside of hummingbird feeders and can injure hummingbirds.
- Stir the sugar and water together in a Mason jar until the sugar crystals are dissolved.
- Pour into clean hummingbird feeders.
- Place excess in the refrigerator for up to three days.
- If you need to make bulk syrup keep the ratio at one part sugar to four parts water for the sugar water blend, use hot water or just boiled water. As an example of parts, use one cup sugar to four cups of water. This blend is close to natural nectar in sucrose content, but can spoil in about a week. Feeders should be cleaned and refilled weekly, especially during hot weather.
- Using red toned humming bird feeders eliminates the need for the red dye commercial humming bird nectars use. Humming birds actually eat more insects than nectar compared to body weight.
Refill the hummingbird feeders as they empty. Put up a minimum of two hummingbird feeders to make a place for all hummingbirds to feed. The territorial nature of the hummingbirds means that one bird may dominate a feeder, preventing other hummingbirds from partaking. (Check out this territorial behavior in the video below).
One bird can’t defend two feeders so other birds get to drink as well.
The best hummingbird feeder
These are the hummingbird feeders we’ve switched to. They stay fresher longer than the plastic feeders we used to have. They are already red so no need to use food coloring. The red colour is on the outside of the bottle so it doesn’t come in contact with the nectar. They are nonreactive. Since they are glass they are easy to keep clean. The tray is nonrusting metal with a plastic base so it is also easy to clean, virtually leak-proof, with no sharp edges. Because of the way the feeding hole is designed there are no problems with wasps, ants, or bees feeding on the nectar and chasing the hummers away. There are no sharp edges to harm hummingbirds.
We’ve been using these feeders for 7 years without any problems. We put the feeder out as soon as we see the first humming birds, usually around April. If you live in a warmer zone, you may be able to put the feeders out earlier. Following this homemade hummingbird food recipe can help you keep hummers local all season, until they migrate.
Can I use organic sugar in my hummingbird feeder?
That’s a great question. There are some internet myths floating around that say that organic refined sugar has too high of an iron content and it will kill hummingbirds if you feed it to them. This posts unpacks that myth, shows you where it stems from and gives you science-backed, evidence to support the feeding of organic refined white sugar solutions to hummingbirds. It also shows which kinds of sweeteners you actually should avoid when feeding hummingbirds in your backyard and explains why that’s important.
Don’t be bamboozled by internet hysteria. Get the facts here.
Make the switch to healthy hummingbird nectar and glass feeders now and keep those pretty hummingbirds coming back to your garden year after year.
Neophyte hummingbird servant here. Moved to new abode, inheriting empty hummingbird nectar stations. So made up a batch of 3:1 sugarwater to now have this frequent buzzing by my ears and cheeks, a divebombing victim. They flitter at a hilarious space away from me as if to laugh but also log their appreciation letting me know who’s boss! Am hooked, love the little beauties… thx for all the pointers and tstmnials, gonna get to know ‘em better and better now!
Hi, thank you for all the information. I was told years ago not to use glass feeders. I live in the high desert of California. They say it gets too hot and the nectar gets too hot. In the summer it can get as hot as 115. But usually over 100 for days . Thank you have a blessed day Terri, Apple Valley, Ca
I purchased clear nectar with calcium and nutrients for hummingbirds. It’s supposed to be all natural. Is this a good choice? It was pricey. Is there a way to make this at home?
I tried this as well, but my hummingbirds wouldn’t touch it. Had to empty it and toss it out. Make sure that they like it first ️
I found that cinnamon is toxic to ants but won’t hurt humming birds.. I sprinkle a mixture of granulated sugar and cinnamon where ever I find ants and the ants take the mixture (sugar) back to their nest and I don’t see the ants again.
Excellent idea. We use cinnamon to discourage ants from entering our beehives for the same reason.
Can I put my sugar water mix in the fridge to store & change every couple days? It’s very hot this year. Thank you!
Yes, indeed. This is exactly how I manage it.
I use denture cleaner, efferdent to clean my feeders every few days. And I fill a yellow bowl (across the yard from feeders) with a much stronger sugar ratio to attract the bees away from the hummingbirds feeder holes.
I painted the yellow flowers on the feeders with red nail polish, read it would stop attracting and bees…so far so good. Just received the recipe to make my own nectar. Have been buying the store nectar…thanks for sharing. I also found a site showing how to build nesting houses for the hummers.
Well what if I grow my own and use only compost or organic fertilizers to feed them. I use no pesticides
I was making a recipe with fresh cherries one day and I noticed all the liquid in the bowl had turned red after I added the cherries. Could cherries or berries be used to to color hummingbird nectar naturally if you take them out before adding the nectar to the feeder? It shouldn’t take much to color the water.
Would this be okay for a feeder that doesn’t have red flowers or red glass to attract birds?
My next door neighbor is from Australia and he says that in his country they don’t use sugar because sugar negatively affected the bones of the birds. I asked him if he knew what they used instead. He didn’t know! But I am grateful because my inquiring brought me to your site where I’ve learned much more!!
Thanks for sharing.
can I use organic coconut sugar?
Do the humming bird have a problem with wind chimes. Not sure if they would like the noise? Thanks I will look for a answer. Neva
My feeder is within 10 inches of a very large wind chime and the hummers roost on the wind chime.
My hummingbirds have no problems with my wind chimes. And believe me, I have 5 wind chimes on my front porch with my hummingbird feeder.
My hummers use my wind chimes as a perch.
I have the same feeder as pictured in the video. The glass screws into metal where the flowers are. When it is in the summer heat it gets too hot for the birds to land on so it needs to be in a well shaded area. It is up all winter where we live in Vancouver, B.C. and attracts the birds. I have been concerned about refined sugar use and glad to know that organic is better.
At a party last night someone said they are now feeding nectar of equal parts water and sugar that they are attracting more hummingbirds than they have ever had. I have always used your 4 to 1 mixture. Am I missing something here, will this harm the birds?
I use 2-1 that’s 1 sugar to 2 water and they love it. I also add a pack of kool-Aid usually cherry. I have used strawberry kiwi or pineapple passion and they love it and keep coming back
This isn’t a healthy choice. The artificial flavors and colors in Koolaid are harmful to the livers of hummingbirds. They might keep coming back, but they may prefer healthier options.
Great article. I have the glass feeder from Amazon and 2 of the regular plastic feeders. Last year, I abandoned the glass one as I noticed the hummingbirds preferred the other ones. They preferred the perches to rest on, since the glass one had none. After reading your article yesterday, I dug out the glass feeder again. However, while cleaning it, I noticed the part with the ports which screws on is actually plastic inside, with metal on the outside. This probably presents the same issues as the plastic ones, since the nectar would be in contact with it. I guess an all-glass feeder can’t be made easily, sigh. I have seen really small ones at Lee Valley but they were quite pricey. May be worth it though, if they are all glass and the small size would keep the weight down.
I think the glass feeders with the plastic tray are safer than the plastic feeders because the plastic tray is not heated in the same way as the all plastic ones by sunlight. When plastic is heated by direct sunlight it tends to leach into the water.This isn’t an issue with the glass feeders, even though they do have a plastic tray on the bottom.
Makes sense. Thanks for that info.
My plastic hummingbird feeder is not in the sun at all. It is on our porch. If it doesn’t get direct sunlight, is it okay to use? Thanks.
Glass is better. But if all you have is a plastic one, go with what you have. It’s good you’ve got it out of the sun.
You can get ant guards for your feeders. They are little cups with hooks on top and bottom. Fill them with water and hang the feeder off the lower hook. Last Summer, we had a particularly aggressive male that dominated 3 feeders, each about 15 feet apart across the deck. He sat in a nearby tree and would drive off any others that came to feed. I placed 2 of them around the corner out of his line of sight and the others started using them. Problem solved, or so I thought. The next day, he had positioned himself on another limb where he could watch both sides of the house. Luckily, he didn’t return this year and the ones here now seem happy to share.
I added Unkers salve to the hanging post, ants will not cross this and problem solved! It works.
Rogers sugar in Canada is cane sugar. I have been feeding hummers for 40 years. I now have Anna’s that stay all year here near the coast in Langley, B.C. I use a 1 cup measuring cup, 1/4 sugar, 3/4 hot water and stir until it dissolves the sugar. Check your feeders often to make sure there isn’t any black mold growing. I rinse my feeders with hot water right before I fill them. I have used glass feeder that are hung under the large roof edges of my house. Happy humming!
Is there a reason not to use raw sugar/turbinado cane sugar ? It is slightly clouded and amber color
That is my question also. It seems like raw sugar would be healthier.
I wouldn’t use organic cane or sugar in the raw. Nothing except organic white sugar. Organic cane has traces of molasses which is why it is amber in color. Molasses has iron and it harms the birds. Use non gmo, organic, white. Plan white cane is ok as long as no gmo or molasses. Never use coloring. Hopefully that’s a non brainer for most people.
The recipe is one quarter cup of sugar to 1 cup of water… you need to make it 1 cup water not 3/4 cups water for proper recipe. Yours is a little too sweet.
I have very tiny ants that get all over my feeders, & some get in. I’ve put Vick’s all over the shepherds hook pole, but it doesn’t stop them this year. Any tips??
By accident, I used fishing line since I had no string or anything to hang the feeder. It hangs across a small diameter tree limb and I tie the 2 ends to make a long loop. Then I add a ‘S’ hook or such to the feeder and just hang it through the loop. No more ants. Then just can’t crawl down the thin line to the feeder.
Ant guards or moats. Amazon has them.
Home Depot, Lowe’s and sometimes Walmart will have a cup like dish with two hooks, one for hanging on on a hook and the bottom one for hanging the feeder on. You than put about a 1/4 cup of soapy water in the cup and no more ants. This is the best I can describe it. I use them and they work well. You have to keep the soapy water replenished to keep the ants out though. Ask an associate in the garden centers and I’m sure they will help you. Hope this helps.
No need for the soap. Water in the moat will keep out the ants. If you use soap and a flat hummingbird feeder rather than a long one, soap could splash into the nectar.
I wrap a dryer sheet around the bracket and have not had ants ever since I started doing that.
I bought metal red moats from Amazon and put white vinegar in the moats!! No more ants!!
Greeting! We are just thrilled that momma hummingbird nested. One egg so far. My question is would it be ok to put hummingbird feeder next to her?
I would put the hummingbird feeder a little ways away. Hummingbirds are very territorial and you don’t want a competing hummingbird to chase her away from her young.
Was reading on a mother’s site not to use organic sugar as it has too much iron for hummers. ?
best to use c and h cane sugar then….not beet sugar which is gmo. Thanks, good to know.
How does the fact that the beets where once genetically modified for growth and production reasons make a difference to humming birds? Just asking.
It’s not the genetic modification as much as sugar beets that are genetically modified are grown with high levels of pesticides and herbicides. Studies have shown that the herbicides and pesticides remain in the sugar, after it is processed.
Tracy, this explains why some bloggers are now recommending that people avoid feedng organic sugar to hummingbirds. The information isn’t based on science but on internet myths. Check it out here: You can read the report yourself and decide what’s best for you.
Hello! I have black/white with red-flashing on the throat, and I get green ones here in Southern Maine. Not sure if I get others, but those are the two I KNOW I host. I have found that they do prefer glass over plastic. Mine wont even drink from the plastic bottled ones! Had to go get glass ones. LOL
Smart hummers!
I just bought the red hobnailed finished red glass feeder.
Are those holes big enough for a hummingbird to stick in his beak and draw out nectar? I’m half tempted to make the holes bigger and get rid of the little flower. I have the drill bits. It would be easy to make the holes slightly larger to make it easier for the little birds to eat.
Any suggestions?
They are big enough for my humming birds. I wouldn’t enlarge them. You may end up attracting ants and wasps if the holes are too big.
Joybilee is so right. I found out the hard way–The bees squeeze in and die in the water reservoir. Not good…. Leave the little flower covers on. Also the bees will keep trying and I notice they finally give up, but have read you may want to move the feeder after the episode..
Where can I find a red glass hummingbird feeders?
Hi, Thelma, Right here on Amazon.
So I looked up the red glass feeder by PERKY-PET they also sell a nectar, Is it safe for Humming birds, as I perches some the other day? wont use it tell I hear back, Thank you for all the info. my feelings are if I’m going to do anything with nature ,I want to do it right. I would be sick if I found out that I caused any hard ship on any animal what so ever. Again I want to say Thanks’ to all of you and this very .informative web sight.
The red feeders are great. These are the ones I use. You don’t need to purchase the nectar they sell. Its over priced. Just use sugar.
I read a research paper that said liquid baby vitamins added to the sugar water nectar are utilized by hummingbirds to help maintain their high metabolism.
I really appreciated your post. It was very informative.I like the product info as well. Thank you.