Hummingbird nectar calculator
Enter the water you want to use and get the white sugar for it, at the 1 to 4 ratio Audubon and the Cornell Lab recommend, then see how often to change the feeder.
Hummingbirds live only in the Americas, so gardens in the UK and Europe don’t need nectar feeders. The calculator still works in millilitres and grams for anyone feeding them over there.
Hummingbird nectar · 1 part sugar to 4 parts water
That is about 17.4% sugar by weight. Measure by volume, as the recipe is written; grams use USDA’s 200 g to the cup of granulated sugar.
Hummingbird nectar · 1 part sugar to 4 parts water
That is about 17.4% sugar by weight. Measure by volume, as the recipe is written; grams use USDA’s 200 g to the cup of granulated sugar.
| Hot weather | Empty and clean it every day or every other day |
|---|---|
| Temperate weather | Empty and clean it every three days |
| Cooler weather | Empty and clean it twice a week |
Audubon’s schedule. Clean at once if you see mould, cloudy nectar or insects, or if a sick bird has used the feeder.
How to make it
Stir refined white sugar into boiling water until it dissolves, let it cool, then fill the feeder. That is ¼ cup of sugar to each cup of water. Extra keeps in the fridge; let it warm to room temperature before you refill. Orioles take a weaker mix, 1 part sugar to 6 parts water.
What not to add
No red food colouring: natural nectar is clear, and red parts on the feeder attract the birds just as well. Don’t swap in honey, brown sugar, molasses or artificial sweeteners; Audubon warns that honey can encourage dangerous fungal growth.
Keeping the feeder clean
Sugar water spoils fast in warm weather, so empty and clean the feeder on the schedule above, or every time it runs dry. Audubon suggests hot tap water with hydrogen peroxide or a weak vinegar solution, avoiding dish soap residue; Project FeederWatch washes with warm water and dish soap and rinses thoroughly. Either way, rinse well.
Questions
Do I have to boil the water?
Audubon and Project FeederWatch both start from boiling water, which dissolves the sugar quickly. Always let the nectar cool before it goes in the feeder.
Why does the grams figure differ from the volume?
The recipe is by volume. Sugar is denser than water, so a quarter cup weighs about 50 g, using USDA’s figure of 200 g to the cup; that makes the nectar about 17.4% sugar by weight.
Should I make it stronger in cold weather?
Audubon’s answer is simply 1 to 4 all year. Where nights freeze, keep the feeder from freezing; nectar freezes at a lower temperature than plain water.
Sources
- National Audubon Society: How to Make Hummingbird Nectar (¼ cup refined white sugar to 1 cup boiling water; no honey or red food colouring) and Hummingbird Feeding FAQs (the 1:4 ratio, no brown sugar, honey, molasses or artificial sweeteners, refrigerating extra, the cleaning schedule and cleaning methods, freezing).
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Project FeederWatch: Feeding Birds (one part sugar to four parts boiling water, one to six for orioles, no red dye, cleaning hummingbird feeders every couple of days and more often in warm weather).
- USDA FoodData Central: Sugars, granulated (1 cup = 200 g), used for the grams.
- NIST: Handbook 44, Appendix C (a cup is 8 US fluid ounces; a fluid ounce is 29.57 ml), used for the millilitres.