![]() I’ll only put two ounces into each feeder in the spring (and in late fall) because use is light and the last thing any of us want to do is waste sugar water (sugar cane fields are gobbling up important habitat). I make a quart at a time and refrigerate what’s left. The solution I use ( that is most like nectar) is 1 part sugar and 4 parts water. The Proper Solution for a Hummingbird Feeder This way females will have options, places to set up their own territory and nest in our yard, away from bossy, territorial males (who DO NOT share, even with females they’ve mated with). And I hang the last one in the back of our woods. I hang one from a tree limb at the back of our garden. ![]() ![]() I hang one from the arbor into our perennial garden. I hang one from a shepherd’s hook on our back porch, easily viewed from the kitchen and sunroom. I put one feeder on each end of my front porch (and enjoy them from the front porch rockers). I want females to settle in too and consider nesting in our yard. I hang 8 feeders scattered around our yard, so that returning males (they migrate first) can’t take control of our whole yard. When hummingbirds arrive, my garden is still dirt! Without well-maintained feeders, “on-the-move” Ruby-throated Hummingbirds will keep going. You might wonder why I recommend putting out a hummingbird feeder, which is obviously an artificial nectar source. We often don’t see the first Ruby-throated Hummingbird in our yard until around April 20th (despite early sightings elsewhere), and some years they take another week or two to settle into our yard and habitat. With these recent sightings I quickly hung 4 feeders today! And thankfully native nectar sources that I planted for hummingbirds and other pollinators are also about to bloom: Coral Honeysuckle, Wild Columbine, and Red Buckeye to name a few. They will steadily move north with each good migration weather day, the opening of important nectar plants, and warm enough days with insect life. They have already been sighted at a number of locations in MD, DE, and the Philadelphia area. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been surging north from their wintering grounds (northern Panama and Costa Rica, north to southern Mexico) since mid-February and March. When you go to each of these sites, be sure to set the date for these migration maps to 2023. You can monitor Ruby-throated Hummingbird migration north (AND enter your own sightings) on the 2023 Hummingbird Central map and on the Journey North map. It was a female, which makes one wonder if it was a wintering bird somewhere in the states, since the first migrants are males. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are on migrating north! The first Cape May County, NJ, sighting was on Thursday, April 6, 2023, at feeders in a yard in West Cape May. ![]() Ruby-throated Hummingbird at Coral Honeysuckle, a GREAT native spring nectar source that often reblooms all summer long ![]()
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