How to Make Hummingbird Food at Home

We make hummingbird food at home. Do a search on hummingbird food and you’ll find the same recipe everywhere:

• A 4-to-1 ratio of water to pure white granulated sugar (4 cups of water to 1 cup of plain sugar)

While visiting the Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop in Mission Viejo a while back, the owner gave me the tip to:

• Boil the water first, add the sugar, wait until it dissolves fully and let it boil about 3 more minutes. (Of course, you’ll have to let it cool completely before filling your feeder.) He also recommended changing the food quite often, especially when the weather is hot.

Our neighborhood hummingbirds sure seem to like it! Another feeding strategy is to visit the Tree of Life Nursery and buy some native plants that attract hummingbirds. Whenever our feeder gets empty, the birds go for our potted plants purchased from Tree of Life.

Once we started feeding our own hummingbirds, I found hummingbirds everywhere! You can visit Hummingbird Park in Aliso Viejo. There’s no guarantee you’ll see a hummingbird, but it’s still a nice park.

Originally published in September 2012.