Wildscaping North Texas episode 4: hummingbird feeders 101

by Anne Meyer

It may be hotter'n'hell in North Texas right now, but you can still find wonder and delight in your outside space -- particularly if you take a few simple steps to lure in the hummingbirds. Watching them helicopter about your flowers or battle over your feeders can make you forget the heat. And the first time you see one snap up a mosquito, you'll be hooked into keeping these beauties around.

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Hummers and certain flowers have developed a symbiotic relationship. In nature, hummers flit from bloom to bloom to lap up the nectar. In the process, they incidentally pollinate the plants, which makes the plants healthier and able to put out more blooms ... and you can see how the circle builds here.

Originators of the Type A personality, hummingbirds are all business when it comes to eating. No niceties, just hand over the nectar and no one will get hurt. They love tubular flowers and are so drawn to the color red that they are irresistibly compelled to check out your red ball cap (perhaps hoping they've found the mother of all giant red flowers). But once in your garden, they'll visit any shape or color of flower -- and also snack on a few gnats and skeeters.

Hummingbirds actually calculate how many calories they'll burn up while visiting a flower against the likely number they'll consume. They want the most calories they can get (I choked on my lettuce when I learned that!) and have found that man-made feeders are a great source of calories. Here's how to fix up a feeder:

* Boil up a batch of nectar. Four parts water, one part plain white table sugar; let boil for a minute or two, then cool it off and store in the fridge. Hard to believe, but using HONEY OR BROWN SUGAR WILL KILL THEM via a fungus.

* Red food dye: an unnecessary expense. Your feeder will already have enough red on it.

* Get a small, simple feeder that can be cleaned easily. It's a good one if all parts can be reached easily by a toothbrush. The absolute best design, which looks like a flying saucer, has a clear bowl with feeding holes in the snap-on red lid. It includes a moat in the middle, where you pour tap water to drown out visiting ants. (Intrepid as they are, hummingbirds are terrified of ants.) And -- yay! -- wasps cannot feed from it.

* Change the nectar regularly. If the temperature is in the mid-90's or over, change daily; lower than that, every two or possibly three days. Without preservatives, it goes bad very quickly!!

* Therefore, do not waste nectar by filling up the feeder completely.

* Before putting in new nectar, take a few seconds to clean the feeder. Swab it out with a toothbrush under running water, and rinse well. No need for soap, but if you do use any, RINSE COMPLETELY.

With a simple feeder, a nectar-changing schedule, and a light feeder swabbing, you'll enjoy lots of healthy hummers. If you don't change the nectar/swab the feeder, a black goo develops in the feeder. It can be deadly to the birds. Scrub scrub scrub, resolve to stick to the schedule, and keep your fingers crossed.

Ruby-throats, the hummingbird species most often seen in these parts, are notoriously territorial and will defend "their" feeders. To keep at least a little peace, separate the birds by hanging one feeder in the front yard and one in the back, high enough for safety from cats. We have several feeders out back, and we've found that while two hummers have dashed off in furious combat, an opportunistic third will zip in during their absence. In high season, dozens of hummers are zipping all over the yard.

We're just hitting high season for hummers now. The juveniles are out of the nest and learning where the good food is, and next month more hummers will stop over on their migration south. Fattening up for the journey, they'll appreciate your feeders -- and will come straight back to them next year!