Healthy Feeders Mean Healthy Birds!

Hummingbirds are one of the easiest birds to provide a feeder for. The feed is inexpensive, they are less messy than seed feeders, and the feeder itself is easy to clean. Watching these amazing birds zip around outside of your window can be very entertaining and they can act as your daily reminder about the wonders of nature. You want to be sure to take good care of these sensitive creatures and understand that providing food for hummingbirds comes with some responsibility.

Keeping feeders clean can help keep hummingbirds healthy. Almost all bird species are rapidly declining in population and in North America, our total bird population has decreased by nearly 3 billion over the last 50 years, so providing good care for your feeders can go a long way in helping birds.

First, let’s start with the feeder. There are countless types of hummingbird feeders on the market. You should choose one that can be completely disassembled, and all parts easily cleaned. Size matters too. Pick one appropriate for the area you will hang it. Keep in mind that the bigger the feeder, the more formula you will need to make. Also, the bigger the feeder, the bigger the pot you will need to clean it in!

Second, there is the feed. The best feed to supply is a 4 parts water to 1 part sugar formula. Regular white cane granulated sugar should be used. This should not be substituted for any other sweetener as others may cause dangerous fungus to grow quickly. Warm water to a point where it's hot enough to dissolve the sugar. You can boil the water if you wish, but you must be extra careful to let it cool to room temperature before you fill the feeder. Making your own feed is cost-effective and healthier; stay away from the red stuff you see in stores!

Last, let’s get to the cleaning. Depending on the temperature outside, you should clean your feeder every 3 to 7 days. The warmer it is in your area, the more often you should clean it. If you notice mold starting to grow inside or around your feeder, it is a sure sign that you will need to clean it more often. One easy method is using boiling water, which will also sanitize the feeder. You can boil a pot of water, turn off the heat, and use a brush to clean the feeder in the pot. Soaking all parts in the hot water for a few minutes works well if you have utensils available to help remove them. Be sure to scrub all surfaces, especially the parts where the hummingbirds stick their beaks into. Once cleaned, always place the feeder under sunlight to dry completely before using. The sunlight acts as an additional disinfectant by drying out the surface, raising the temperature, and providing UV rays to fully disinfect the surface.

Using these steps above will help you feed hummingbirds in a responsible manner and keep these amazing birds healthy and happy all year long.

Community Science at Debs

If you hike by the Audubon Center at Debs Park in the morning this summer, you may see a group of people with clipboards, magnifying glasses, and pencils, crouched over milkweed plants, their heads almost resting on the ground as they inspect leaves and stems. The goal: to find and count every single egg or caterpillar of the beautiful western monarch butterfly. These migratory butterflies are threatened by habitat loss, so communities all over North America participate in a huge undertaking called the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project — or MLMP for short — to help researchers understand where monarchs are living and breeding.

On the other hand, you may be thinking to yourself, “I have seen people with clipboards at the Center, but they weren’t looking at the ground, they were looking up into the trees with binoculars.” Not only do we help collect data on butterfly populations, but we also monitor songbird nestboxes through a partnership with UC Davis to help researchers understand where birds are nesting and how much success breeding pairs have with their offspring. Audubon staff and volunteers collect this data by observing songbirds around each nestbox, and actually opening the box to count eggs and nestlings.

Both of these efforts are community science projects, meaning community members volunteer alongside researchers to collect data and answer questions in our shared environment. Science doesn’t always happen at a university with researchers wearing white lab coats and goggles — it also happens on the trails of the Audubon Center at Debs Park with you! Volunteers and community members have been a core part of these projects at every step of the way. From planting the milkweed plants that support a vulnerable butterfly species, to quietly opening up nestboxes and gently feeling songbird eggs, staff, volunteers, and partners at the Center are able to successfully participate in science when we work together in community.

To join these projects or similar community science efforts as they come up, email us at debspark@audubon.org!