Should you hang hummingbird feeders? The answer is complicated, but one thing’s certain: You can’t go wrong with native plants.
Hummingbirds are top contenders for many avian superlatives: Bee hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world, as diminutive as their insect namesake. In proportion to their body sizes, rufous hummingbirds make one of the longest migrations and Anna’s hummingbirds can dive faster than space shuttles re-entering the atmosphere.
“They’re like the little Chihuahuas of the bird world,” says Christine Barton, director of operations at the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center in Ramona, California, an affiliate of the Humane Society of the United States. “They think they’re huge. They think they can take on the world.”
And not without reason: These intelligent acrobats fly backward, hover in mid-air, remember exact locations of flowers and feeders, chase away hawks and devour thousands of insects (including mosquitoes) daily.
The nagging question for wildlife lovers—Are feeders helping or harming hummingbirds?—has few clear answers. But we do know this: Killing them with kindness (or at least good intentions) is all too common.
For all that we know about their fast-paced lifestyles, much remains to be discovered. Climate change and habitat loss may be contributing to their decline, but research is scant. And the nagging question for wildlife lovers—Are feeders helping or harming hummingbirds?—has few clear answers. But we do know this: Killing them with kindness (or at least good intentions) is all too common, due to contaminated feeders, inappropriate ingredients such as honey or brown sugar, and the belief that hummingbirds in distress can be nursed back to health on sugar water alone—human errors described repeatedly in Terry Masear’s delightful and heartbreaking book Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood.
To casual observers, the birds’ eagerness at feeders obscures a critical dietary need: protein-rich insects and spiders. Feeders in landscapes with fewer insects are akin to fast-food drive-thrus doling out 32-ounce sodas and nothing else—a quick hit of energy but little substance. Before adding these artificial food sources, consider creating habitat, advises veterinarian Lisa Tell, director of the UC Davis Hummingbird Health and Conservation Program. “Have you first tried things like planting natural food sources that, by their nature, are already probably healthier for the birds?” she asks. A recent study by Tell and her colleagues found that the composition of microbial communities in sugar water is different from that of floral nectar, with unknown consequences for hummingbirds’ gastrointestinal health. Also, sugar water can go stale, but flowers regularly replenish nectar, and native plants support an abundance of insect life. And while feeders can increase disease transmission by enticing birds into close quarters in high numbers, vegetation isn’t likely to be such a hotbed for pathogens.
In her garden, Barton traded feeders for plants to reduce territorial behaviors. Now the birds dine more peacefully among salvias, penstemons, monkeyflowers and other native species. In the process, they’re also doing plants a favor; about 7,000 species from Alaska to Patagonia rely on hummingbirds for pollination. In one Costa Rica study, feeders drew hummingbirds away from their normal flower-visiting activities, a phenomenon that could negatively affect other wildlife dependent on plants for berries, seeds and nesting sites.
What does all this mean for hummingbird lovers? As with many wildlife-related issues, we must navigate between the world as it is and the world as it should be. If you’re already offering sugar water, “the last thing we want people to do is run out and take their feeders down,” says Tell, especially in environmentally degraded areas where hummingbirds are habituated. To do the most good and the least harm, offer plants, avoid pesticides (which have been found to accumulate in the bodies of hummingbirds), avoid trimming trees and bushes during nesting season, and follow these tips if using feeders: Mix one part white table sugar to four parts water. Place feeders far from windows to prevent bird strikes. Clean weekly and more often when temperatures rise. A good guideline, says Tell: “If you wouldn’t drink it, then it’s not great to offer to them.”
A version of this article appeared in the spring 2019 issue of All Animals magaine.
RELATED STORY: “10 Favorite Plants for Hummingbirds“
I think Hummingbirds feeders are very beneficial for migrating hummers in the early spring and fall to early winter when less nectar sources are blooming. In late autumn bloomers like certain Goldenrod and Aster species too.
Hi Kathy, yes, they probably are — as the article notes, in areas where there isn’t enough habitat the feeders might be helping hummingbirds. But there could be unintended consequences, and it’s just beginning to be studied — so as with everything, the ideal would be to have as many native plants as possible, as they are also likely to be the healthiest food source for them. In places where people are already feeding, they can still keep the feeders going (as long as they are cleaning them and all of that) but add more and more plants as well. As with all habitat issues, plants — live ones, dead ones, different-sized ones at every layer — are the answer. But I know we don’t live in an ideal world, so my question here was how can we balance navigating the world as it should be with the world as it currently exists? I think we can be thoughtful and try to do as much as we can to push toward the world as it should be (which, in my mind, is one filled with plants!). 🙂
I’m working on taking my feeders down and using native plants. How do I slowly take the feeders away ? Or do I need to do that ?
My Nextdoor neighbor also feeds them but she plans to keep doing that.
I feel like I’ve interrupted their lives by feeding them and should have planted more native plants in the first place. I love seeeing them but now the neighbors have cats around on the fence and won’t keep them in.
I want to take the feeders down but I was worried about doing that to fast. Can anyone tell me how to do that? I’d appreciate it.
The science says that insects make up the majority of their diet. Many parts of the country do have things blooming at those times of years and if they don’t, the hummingbirds probably haven’t gotten there yet or the plants are not native.
Yes, good point – I mentioned the critical need for insects and spiders in the article and in other pieces too, but it could probably be even more emphasized. I do worry about dearth of appropriate plants for them in many areas, though, as nectar is also critical to their energy needs and plant nectar is likely more nutritious (and contains little insects for them as well!). I hope people can spend time and effort planting natural “feeders,” aka plants, for them. When they arrive here, most people have only tulips and pansies and things like that blooming, when they could be planting columbines and red buckeyes and coral honeysuckles, which some years start blooming as early as February/March even in Maryland. In the fall I’ve seen them searching on the side of my road in walks, and all they can find is invasive soapworts that the county mowers hadn’t gotten to yet (even though they cut down the jewelweed!). It made me grateful for the soapworts; at least they had something.
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For years, backyard birders and wildlife gardeners in my circles have agonized over perceived unintended consequences of feeding sugar solution to hummers all summer long, especially in places where temps hit the 90s for long stretches of time and full-sun feeder locations are inevitable. Sugar solution gets very hot very quickly! A definite missing link in bird research is a hard look at the impacts of the billion dollar birdfeeding industry. If only we could get those big box and ag stores to drop the stuff that we know is bad. Being armed with data is what we need.
In presentations that I am trained and educated for delivering, the emphasis is on how critical it is to first rely on planting our backyards with natives that are far more conducive to the healthand wellbeing of our feathered friends. People in general are very open and appreciative of the insight that our talks provide, especially when it comes to tips for success such as planting in larger blocks (at least 4’x4′) of color, and across the seasons as early and late as possible. We also emphasize taking a hard U-turn when it comes to the dreaded annuals industry, complete with its massive contribution to pesticide and fetilizer overload. As I say when wrapping up a talk: perennials, perennials, perennials, groundcovers, vines, shrubs, and trees, and you’ll be pleased. 🙂
I appreciate your thoughtful and compassionate additions of insight and will share to several conservation commissions, gardening groups, and to my peers within the NH Coverts Project.
Thanks for all you do in keeping this blog active and interesting!
Jean Eno
Greenland, NH
Hi Jean, thank you so much! I bet your talks are really eye-opening for people who mean well and want to do the right thing but just didn’t know about all these issues. I remember when I first started looking for lists of hummingbird plants, so many of them had mostly annuals and weren’t really very well-informed. Thankfully that has changed a lot, and people can get such great information about what’s native and truly beneficial to hummingbirds and everyone else. The more we can show photos of hummingbirds at these plants, rather than at feeders, the more that might resonate with people, too. Thank you for all you do, too!
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I love hanging my feeders! I work hard to keep them sparkly clean. I also love to garden so I plant LOTS of plants for wildlife. Not just hummingbirds but for the birds and bees. More plantings tend to attract more insects which tend to attract more … I have a young garden now. Starting over in a new climate. I have a couple feeders but I have also added about ten new plants and most of them are hummingbird approved. I never use pesticides. I also like to remind people that hummingbirds eat bugs and also use spiderwebs to build their nests. The garden is for everyone!
HI Kathy! That’s great – it sounds like you have everything they need and nothing they don’t need! Adding all the plants here has been a process, but it’s amazing just how quickly the hummers find them, isn’t it? 🙂
It is! I will add more every year until it is a jungle!
In Florida it seems unnecessary since great natives such as coral honeysuckle flower all year. I did away with all my feeders once my landscape matured. I find I have a more diverse bird activity without the feeders….they come for the insects and nectar from the native plants.
Hi Loret! I was just thinking about you. It must be an absolute buffet there every season! The coral honeysuckle is pretty great here in Maryland in terms of long-season blooms (one year it started in February, but that was really unusual!), so in Florida it must be nonstop. I don’t do the feeders here because I just try to spend that time and money and effort on the plants instead, but I have noticed that they love fountains, so I will try to add one of those again.
Yay! I have a very young coral honeysuckle. It is one of my favorites. Great to hear Loret!
I think this is a great article. It pulls together all of the benefits to the bird while rightly pointing out that we do not know if there are health impacts. Our own diets have been overloaded with sugar and this has not been to our benefit. I have long thought about the plants that are not being pollinated while the hummer is at the feeder. I’m not sure that we know the answer, or even if there is a right or wrong answer, but great job on bring the issues into the public debate.
Hi David, thank you! Yes, it’s such a tricky issue because there are things we could logically intuit about the potential harm of feeding, but the same goes for the potential benefits. I was happy to learn that more people are starting to study these issues to at least get a handle on what best practices might be. But as I write this, a male ruby-throated is zipping around on the coral honeysuckle in front of me, as if to say, yes, please plant more! 🙂 I meant to also link to the blog by the researcher who led the pollination study in Costa Rica; here it is if you haven’t seen it: https://fieldstudies.org/2012/02/whats-the-impact-of-hummingbird-feeders/
Thanks for this informative post, Nancy. I intend posting on feeding garden birds in general – I have been postponing doing this because the feeding garden birds discussion can be quite contentious, but perhaps if people start with a “both and” approach (appropriate plants and feeders) rather than an “either or” approach, they can start discovering the benefits of diverse plantings. Anyway, when I do the post, I will definitely refer people to your post as it has relevance everywhere there are gardens and birds.
Hi Carol! Yes, I think it’s another one of those tough issues where we know what the ideal would be, be in the absence of the ideal, what should we do instead or recommend to others? Isn’t it amazing how universal so many of these things are? Even when we have totally different plants and animals, we ourselves are all the same species with similar inclinations toward the natural world, in both good and bad ways.
This fall we’ve had beautiful hummingbirds with different colors: grey, metallic yellow and velvet green. They’re so beautiful and friendly! Our take’s to give them the plants they love- perovskia atriplicifolia and cestrum parqui. And of course trees where our guests can rest for a while.
Hi Soledad! I would love to see your hummingbird species one day. Do they migrate? I don’t think the ones here migrate as far south as the ones in your region, so I’d be interested to learn more about the life cycles of yours. Your cestrum parqui looks a lot like our Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens)! 🙂
I live in California and have lots of humming bird friendly plants. We have lots of visitors to the plants. One little gal decided to build her nest on our porch! We are really enjoying our new neighbor. However we are in the great debate. Should we add a feeder??