Along with Spring and Summer comes Ruby-throated hummingbirds. If you have not yet put up a feeder to attract these tiny birds, it’s not too late.
Basically a container to hold sugar water, a hummingbird feeder typically has two or more feeding ports where hummers can use their long tongues to obtain the sweet liquid within. Some feeders simply have holes at which the little creatures need to hover in order to eat, but other feeders have perches where the birds can land to feed.
I highly recommend a feeder with perches so the birds can rest while feeding instead of hovering. This will save them energy.
However, hummingbirds cannot live on sugar water alone. They also eat arthropods.
Tiny insects and spiders furnish the proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals needed for the proper functioning of these diminutive birds’ bodies. Sugar water or flower nectar provides the carbohydrates (fuel) that is the source of the hummingbird’s energy.
Perhaps in response to the public’s perception that refined white sugar is somehow extremely inferior to other kinds of sugar (it is not; sugars are practically the same chemically), and perhaps not realizing that hummingbirds eat tiny animals, someone came up with the idea to sell an “improved” sugar-water mix that is fortified.
Supposedly full of vitamins, minerals, and whatever else would be necessary for a hummer’s good health, this expensive mix may be available in local stores. You do not need to spend your money on it, but if you already have done so, do not feel bad. Apparently even some professors do not know better.
A reader informed me several years ago that a University of California at Santa Cruz professor instructed local residents to supply a fortified sugar mixture to hummers after a blight destroyed many of the fuchsias (a tubular flowering plant) in that area. The reader asked me what I thought of the man’s recipe. It included 2 teaspoons Thompsons or Radiance mineral vitamin syrup or 4 teaspoons soyagen or soya mel powder (not both) per 1½ cups water and ½ cup sugar.
I think the professor did not know that hummers eat (and are fortified by) insects and spiders. Additionally, his suggested ratio of sugar to water is so high that it could cause liver damage to these little creatures. Sugar water should never be more than one part sugar to four parts water, which mimics the ratio found in most kinds of flower nectar.
By putting up a feeder we can enjoy the company of hummers by drawing them closer to our windows where we can more easily observe their behavior. Watch these fascinating birds when they are at your feeder or flowers and you are bound to catch one in the act of snapping up a tiny insect or spider.
Please note that you should never use honey in place of white sugar as honey molds more easily and the mold is toxic to our feathered visitors. Cleaning your feeder and putting in fresh solution every few days will maintain the good health of your hummingbirds.
Naturalist Marlene A. Condon is the author/photographer of The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People (Stackpole Books; information at www.marlenecondon.com). If you have a question about plants or animals, or gardening in a nature-friendly manner, send it to [email protected] and please watch for an answer in this paper.
