Bird Nectar

A sweet treat for your favorite birds

If you like to see hummingbirds and orioles flit about your garden, you've got to attract them with nectar. These birds won't eat birdseed or suet - they're interested in maintaining a permanent sugar high in order to keep up their energy. Serving nectar, normally made of one part sugar and four or five parts water, is a great way to attract these birds and will add to their diet of flower nectar and insects. You can occasionally use nectar to attract tanagers, as well.

Nectar for hummingbirds should be sweet syrup made of sucrose. You can use fructose, but some people have found that the hummers in their area prefer the taste of white table sugar. Don't use raw sugar if you can possibly help it; it contains impurities and a high iron content that could severely damage a hummingbird's system. Never provide fruit or honey, and it's not really a good idea to provide vitamin-enriched nectar mixes either, since the birds will get their fill of vitamins from the floral nectar and the insects they eat on a day-to-day basis. Remember, you're providing a snack for the hummers, not their sole source of food.

If you are providing nectar for orioles, then you might want to find a variety that is orange-flavored. Orioles go crazy for the taste and smell of oranges. You can use regular sugar water (1 part sugar to 4 parts water), but you'll see more of these beautiful orange and black birds flocking to your yard if you have orange-flavored water or put out an oriole feeder. You can also put out orange slices, grape jelly and other sweet treats to attract orioles.

For both types of nectar, you need to remember to check the food for spoilage. Birds probably won't eat spoiled food, but it can be dangerous even if the food has just gone bad. If you look at the syrup and find that it's cloudy, it's spoiled and needs changing. Always make sure to clean your feeder and for the sake of the birds, don't use orange or red food coloring, because this can make them very sick. You will attract more birds if your feeder has any brilliant red or orange parts on it, which most commercially sold oriole and hummingbird feeders do.

You may have trouble with ants and bees wanting to get at the nectar as well. Pest-proofing your nectar feeder will stop these bugs from getting too annoying and taking over your feeder.