So on the whole, feeders are good. They also provide an easy way for people to connect with wildlife.
But there’s one big, big, caveat here: If your feeder is dirty, it could be harming, or even killing, the hummers that visit it, turning the feeder from a lifeline into a trap. Unless you’re prepared to regularly clean your feeder, you may be better off not having one.
this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2025
12 points (100.0% liked)
Animals
92 readers
1 users here now
Anything and everything about non-human animals.
Rules:
- Posts should be relevant to non-human animals, including articles (news or just interesting facts), pictures (OC only but the animals need not be your pets), or text posts.
- Keep things civil. Don't insult other users or their pets. Do not post content that promotes animal abuse (this does not include content, like news, that portrays abuse in a negative light).
- Follow site-wide rules
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Instead of a hummingbird feeder, plant native plants that they like. You won't end up with the whole swarms of hummingbirds and will instead only see one at a time, but it's better than making them sick.
Yeah just read the article, wonder just how many people have clue what they are doing? Just sitting it out there and then leaving it? This needs to be spread wide and far. Hell it should be mandatory information given out anytime someone buys one
I'm surprised that water with so much sugar in it can spoil.
Hummingbird feeders are exposed to bacteria and yeast, bacteria and yeast like sugar and they like warmth. Hummingbird nectar recipes usually call for around 20% sugar (1:4 water ratio). That is nowhere near high enough to deter microbial growth, for instance sugar syrup is around 70% sugar on average, and that's high enough that it will lower the water activity (aw) to a point where bacteria will usually not flourish - but still may if the container is badly contaminated, or sitting in a warm location for long enough. For honey it's 80+% sugars and usually around 17% water, which is a low enough water activity that it keeps it safe from microbial growth. If you want to go down a whole rabbit hole on this, search 'water activity honey' etc and you'll see a bunch of interesting research and industry guidelines.
Anyway put that all together and yeah, you need to clean hummingbird feeders regularly or they become bacteria & yeast farms, like the article discusses.
