It’s migration season, and the first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are arriving in the Northeast right now. If your feeder isn’t up yet, you might miss the first wave of them. But before you simply hang your feeder, you must consider when to hang, where to hang, and what to fill to benefit both you and the hummingbird.
Let’s start off with when they arrive. The first hummingbirds arrive in the southern states around late February to mid-March, and make their way up through the US into the very northern states (and even Southern Canada) by mid-April to mid-May. To find specific arrival windows local to you, I’d recommend checking out Journey North — they run realtime crowdsourced migration maps of hummingbird sightings.
When hanging your hummingbird feeders, it’s important to choose the correct location to keep hummingbirds safe. Your feeder should be high enough away from ground predators, but not too high to expose them to heavy wind — as swaying feeders discourage hummingbirds. Therefore, a height of 4 to 6 feet is optimal.
Next — and one of the most important things to think about when hanging bird feeders — is distance from your windows. Window collisions are one of the biggest reasons for bird deaths, as birds are unable to differentiate between reflections in windows and real objects. Typically, you should always place feeders very close to windows (so the bird cannot accumulate enough speed while flying away to injure itself), or very far from windows — generally recommended at over 30 feet, though the safest approach regardless of distance is to apply bird-safe window film or closely-spaced decals to break up reflections. For hummingbirds, place their feeders away from other non-hummingbird feeders, as larger birds can intimidate them.
For hummingbird nectar, the recipe is straightforward: 1 part refined white sugar to 4 parts water. Do not add red food coloring, as it is not necessary and harmful to the bird, and absolutely do not substitute white sugar with honey, as it promotes the growth of candida yeast (a fungal infection which swells the hummingbird’s tongue until it cannot feed — essentially starving it to death). Additionally, brown sugar contains high amounts of iron, which is not processed well by hummingbirds, and confectioners’ sugar can not only block digestive systems of birds, but also enhance fermentation of nectar.
Feeders should be cleaned and refilled every other day in hot weather, at least once a week in cooler spring or fall. It’s important to note that full sun can speed up spoilage too. While your feeders are up, there are two signs of spoilage you should look for. Cloudy nectar is a sign of bacterial growth, and black spots are colonies of black mold. Both are dangerous to hummingbirds, and should be cleaned immediately with white vinegar (a safe and effective cleaner, in contrast to soap which can actually do more harm than good for birds).
An insect or two sharing your feeder with hummingbirds is completely normal. Hummingbirds share their nectar with insects all the time in the wild! It only becomes a problem when insects take over your feeders in such numbers that it begins to discourage hummingbirds in the first place. Honeybees and bumblebees are beneficial pollinators worth protecting, and rarely ever cause problems at feeders. The real culprits are wasps and hornets, as they’re more aggressive, and can even chase hummingbirds away. When selecting a feeder, get saucer-style feeders, or ones with bee guards, so the hummingbirds can reach the nectar with their long tongues but insects can’t. Avoid feeders with yellow parts (like yellow flowers), as yellow naturally attracts wasps and bees. Keep the outside of your feeders clean and dry, as sticky nectar residue is the main attractant. Just remember to never use any pesticides, oils, or petroleum jelly, as these are just as harmful to hummingbirds as to insects.
In nature, flowers only produce so much nectar per day, so hummingbirds instinctively protect their own patch of flowers from other hummingbirds. The reason you may only have one hummingbird at your feeder is actually because of its territorial nature. This instinct carries over to your feeders, and aggressive fighting is especially common during breeding season. The fix is to place your feeders apart from each other, and ideally out of sight from each other, so each hummingbird can have its personal “patch of flowers”, with nobody to bother it.
There’s a common myth about hummingbird feeders that when you leave your feeders up in fall, you compel hummingbirds to stay and prevent migration. This is not true, as migration is driven by daylight length and hormonal changes — not food availability. Keeping feeders up well into fall actually supports late migrants and stray hummingbirds passing through. It’s best to take down your feeders two to three weeks after your last hummingbird sighting.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds are one of my favorite migratory arrivals, and I can’t wait to start seeing them at my feeders! Have you seen one yet? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!
Featured photo by Skyler Ewing on Pexels.
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