The food they are most attracted to in many birders’ backyards is a basic recipe that approximates the natural sucrose content of top nectar-producing flowers and offers the birds a healthy, nutritious, easily digestible source of energy and calories. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.Hummingbirds have a sugar-centric lifestyle and eat a variety of different things like flower nectar, honey, tree sap, and ripened fruit juices, as well as insects for a source of protein. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. It might be focused on getting its protein fix and catching a flying gnat right out of the air. So don’t be shocked if a hummingbird zips past you feeder and ignores a fresh batch of sugar water. Or consider planting some red or purple flowers in your garden, like Salvias or Monardas – hummingbirds love them and they’re great sources of insects too. The red color on your feeder is enough for a hummingbird to find it. Most red dyes are petroleum-based, and it makes their poop red, which is unnatural. There is such a thing as too sweet, even for a hummingbird.ĭid you know that hummingbirds probably don’t want red dye added to their sugar water? Red dye serves no healthy purpose for their body (or yours). Try not to make it too much sweeter than a 4:1 ratio because it is harder for them to digest. For example, brown sugar has too much iron in it. A dirty or moldy feeder can make hummingbirds sick.ĭon’t ever use brown sugar, honey, or any other type of sweetener, which can harm a hummingbird. Remember to clean and refill your feeder every few days, especially in hot weather. Mix four parts water to one part white sugar and then boil, cool and fill the feeder. You can easily fill your feeders with sugar water. Kit Leong How to attract and feed hummingbirdsĭiluted white sugar most closely resembles the sucrose nectar of flowers the birds feed on. I’ve been studying hummingbirds for 10 years, and as part of my research, I place tiny aluminum bands on thousands of hummingbird legs to help me learn where they migrate and allow me to monitor how healthy their populations are each year.Ī hummingbird slurping nectar from Salvia officinalis flowers. If you watch hummingbirds near your feeders, you might get to see them do some erratic, zigzag flying – this is how they catch small insects flying through the air. Their largest source of protein is from eating insects. While sugar makes up a large component of their diet, they also need proteins, fats, vitamins and minerals to be healthy. If you have a hummingbird feeder filled with sugar water, you might have the impression that all that hummingbirds need to live a healthy life is to sip sweet drinks all day long.īelieve it or not, these tiny birds need other types of fuel as well. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to don’t hummingbirds get fat or sick from drinking sugary nectar? – Dhruv, age 15, Washington, District of Columbia Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages.
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