Hummingbird feeder FAQ

Four parts water to one part plain white sugar. Audubon publishes it as a quarter cup of refined white sugar to one cup of boiling water. The ratio page.

It is in the standard recipe and worth doing, mainly because it dissolves the sugar completely. It does not keep the nectar sterile once it is in an outdoor feeder — the cleaning schedule does that.

Never. Audubon warns that honey can promote dangerous fungal growth. Plain refined white sugar only. What not to use.

Audubon calls red food coloring not necessary and notes it could also prove harmful. It also does not work as intended — birds are drawn to red on the feeder, not in the liquid. The full answer.

Change the nectar every three to five days in moderate weather and daily in very hot weather, with a full break-down wash at least weekly. The cadence.

Hot water and a brush at every change, a four-to-one vinegar and water solution for the weekly wash, and dilute bleach only for established mold — rinsing thoroughly and air drying every time. Vinegar vs bleach.

Take it fully apart, scrub every surface with a bottle brush and a port brush, soak in 4:1 vinegar and water or dilute bleach, rinse thoroughly and air dry completely. The mold page.

Stop the drips first — a saucer feeder cannot drip — then wash the outside at every refill, move the feeder a few feet, and fit bee guards. Never insecticide, never oil. The bees page.

An ant moat — a small cup of plain water hung above the feeder. Ants will not cross water. Keep it filled and make sure the feeder hangs free of walls and branches. The ants page.

No, and this is the most common mix-up in the category. A moat stops crawling insects. Bees fly. They are unrelated problems with unrelated solutions.

No. Ants cross foil without difficulty and there is no mechanism behind the tip. Water is what stops them. Why the myth persists.

A saucer feeder that comes apart in two pieces, 8 to 16 oz, with a built-in ant moat. Our ranked picks.

Glass for visibility and longevity, plastic for weight, cost and anywhere windy. Design beats material though — a plastic saucer outperforms a glass bottle. The comparison.

Almost certainly because it is an inverted bottle: the trapped air above the nectar warms, expands and pushes liquid out through the ports. It is physics, not a fault. Feeders that don’t leak.

Eight to sixteen ounces. Nectar spoils on a schedule set by temperature rather than volume, so a large feeder mostly produces waste. The arithmetic.

Four to six feet — above a cat’s reach and below the height where you need a ladder to service it. Shade matters more than height. Placement.

A week or two before hummingbirds normally arrive where you live — Audubon suggests early March in the Southeast and late April in the Northeast. Spring timing.

No. Migration is triggered by day length and instinct, not by food supply. A feeder left up provides fuel for a long journey. Fall timing.

Usually timing, spoiled nectar, or visibility — in that order. A new feeder can take two to four weeks to be found. Eight causes.

No, and we say so on every commercial page. Reviews are built from published specifications, manufacturer descriptions, port geometry and live pricing. Our method.