DIY hummingbird feeder

Make the feeder

The simplest homemade nectar feeder is a small glass bottle hung tip-down with a feeding tube, the same idea as an animal water bottle. Glass scrubs cleaner than plastic, and one tube is easy to keep clean.

1. Use a clean glass bottle of about 8 oz.
2. Fit a one-hole rubber stopper and push in a glass or stainless steel feeding tube, sold for animal water bottles or as a replacement hummingbird tube.
3. Wrap red tape around the outside of the tube near the tip, where nectar never touches it, so hummingbirds find it.
4. Make a wire loop around the neck and base so the bottle hangs tip-down at about 45°.
5. Hang it in shade within reach, with an ant moat above: a bottle cap of water on the hanger.

Fill it

Mix 4 parts water to 1 part refined white sugar by volume: 1 cup of water takes ¼ cup of sugar. No honey, brown sugar, sweetener or red dye. Make only what the birds finish in a day or two.

Clean it

Audubon’s schedule: empty and clean the feeder every day or every other day in hot weather, every three days in mild weather and twice a week when it is cool. A pipe cleaner reaches inside the tube. Pour out nectar that turns cloudy or shows black mold, and clean right away.

If it drips

A drip means air is getting in: push the stopper in tight, fill the bottle fully, and hang it out of direct sun, where warming air pushes nectar out. Drips draw ants and bees; if it keeps dripping, a saucer feeder, which cannot drip, is the easier choice.