The best hummingbird feeders for a balcony or deck railing

How we judged these

Published specifications only — we have not handled these feeders, and this is what we did instead. The criteria are different from every other roundup on this site, because the constraints are:

1. Can it drip? Weighted first and hard, for the reason in the skip note above. This single criterion eliminates most of the category.
2. How does it attach? There is no branch. It is a window, a railing, or nothing — and if you rent, it needs to attach without drilling.
3. Capacity, judged downward. A balcony is one feeder for one or two birds. Eight to twelve ounces, and half-filled is fine.
4. Can you clean it at a kitchen sink? You have no hose. The feeder has to come apart and fit under a tap.
5. Does it look like something you want two feet from a chair? Unusually, this one counts here.

The drip problem, stated plainly

In an inverted bottle feeder the nectar sits above the ports and is held there by a partial vacuum. That vacuum is temperature-dependent. When the sun warms the air trapped in the top of the bottle it expands, pushes down, and nectar comes out of the ports. Every bottle feeder does this to some degree; it is the design, not a fault.

In a saucer feeder the nectar sits in a shallow dish below the ports. There is no column of liquid pressing down and no vacuum to break, so there is nothing for warming air to push out. It cannot drip. The full argument is on saucer vs bottle.

On a balcony that distinction stops being about tidiness. Sugar water on a neighbor’s balcony is a complaint; sugar water running down a building is how ants get in. It is also the fastest way to find out what your lease says about bird feeders.

1. Perky-Pet 217 — best for a balcony overall

Eight ounces, three tapered ports, three detachable perches, shatter-resistant plastic, 8.4 x 5.5 x 3.5 inches, mounted with a suction cup or hung from a nail. Perky-Pet states it comes apart completely, perches included.

On the glass is the best place for a feeder on a balcony. It uses no floor space, it needs no railing bracket and no drilling, it is at eye level from indoors, and eight ounces is honestly sized for the one or two birds a balcony realistically supports. The tapered ports also make it harder for bees to reach the nectar, which matters when the feeder is close enough to touch.

Honest cons: suction cups let go in heat and cold — clean the glass with rubbing alcohol first and re-check after the first hot week, and think about what is below before you mount it. It is a bottle-style reservoir, so it is not immune to the drip problem, though eight ounces limits how much there is to lose. And the plastic will cloud. More in the window feeder roundup and our Perky-Pet window review.

2. Aspects HummZinger HighView — best on a railing hook

Aspects item 429: 12 oz, four ports, UV-stabilized polycarbonate, built-in ant moat, wraparound perch, raised flowers that divert rain, roughly 7-3/4 inches across and 1-3/4 inches tall, lifetime guarantee.

If you have a railing you can clamp or hook onto, this is the pick, and the reason is the skip note: it is a saucer, so it structurally cannot drip onto whatever is underneath. It is also the fastest feeder here to wash — the cover lifts off and you rinse one shallow bowl, which matters when the sink is six feet away and the job is every few days. Being only 1-3/4 inches tall, it tucks under a rail without dominating the space.

Honest cons: you need something to hang it from, and a balcony rail hook is an extra purchase we cannot recommend a specific model for. Twelve ounces is more than a balcony needs — fill it part way. The polycarbonate clouds with age. And no bee-guard tips are fitted; if bees find it, that is the Ultra.

3. Aspects Jewel Box — the best view, when you can get one

A shallow 8 oz dish that mounts on the glass, with three ports, a detachable ant moat and a hinged lid that lets you refill without taking anything off the window.

It is the nicest thing on this page to live with: saucer geometry on the glass means the no-drip argument and the close-up view at the same time, and the hinged lid removes the single most annoying part of owning a window feeder. A feeder you have to unmount to fill is a feeder you fill less often.

Honest cons — including an availability one. At the time of writing we could not confirm a currently-purchasable single-unit listing for this model; stock appears to come and go, and the multi-packs are a different purchase. Our buy link therefore goes to a live search rather than a fixed listing, and you may find it is not available when you look. Beyond that: eight ounces is small, suction cups need the same alcohol-clean and re-check as any window mount, and it is plastic. Full write-up: the Jewel Box review.

Things that are different on a balcony

• Mount on the pane or well away from it, never at the middle distance. A bird leaving a feeder stuck to the glass has no room to build up speed. The risky distance is a few feet out, where a startled bird can accelerate into a reflection.
• Check the lease and the rail. Some buildings prohibit anything attached to a railing. A suction-cup window feeder usually sidesteps that entirely.
• Wind is worse up high. Higher floors are more exposed, which argues again for the glass rather than a hook — see feeders for windy areas.
• Shade is harder to find. A balcony is often a sun trap, and heat shortens the change interval to daily. See feeders for hot weather.
• Expect it to take longer to be found. A feeder three floors up is not on a hummingbird’s usual route. Red on the feeder helps; red dye in the nectar does not, and is not safe — see why. Patience and a nearby potted plant help more.
• One feeder is the right number. There is nowhere to put a second that the first cannot be seen from, so a second buys you nothing but washing — the reasoning is here.

Cleaning without a garden

Everything on this page comes apart and fits under a kitchen tap, which is deliberate. The routine does not change because you live in an apartment: empty it completely, take it apart, scrub every surface in hot water with a bottle brush and a port brush, rinse twice and air dry before refilling. Do not top up old nectar with new.

The one adjustment is where you empty it. Do not tip old nectar over the railing — it goes somewhere. Pour it down the sink. Cadence is on how often to clean a hummingbird feeder; the full method is on how to clean one.