The Best Hummingbird Feeders To Attract Hummers

I have tried just about every type of hummingbird feeder in existence over the years, from small ornate ones to the industrial sized Perky Pets Grand Master. I have settled on two types of feeder, dependent upon the population density of the hummingbirds. Over winter and early spring, I use an excellent feeder, called the Humdinger. In summertime, when our peak population can reach 150 hummingbirds, I resort to the industrial strength BEST 1 72oz feeders. Read more….

Humdinger Feeder:

Suitable for lower population densities
Benefits:
· It is available in bulk from Turbine Industries, and they work out to be a little over $5 each.
· It has a two part base that is very easy to clean – it doesn’t have tight nooks where bacteria can accumulate (unlike every Perky Pet feeder)
Has a 32oz glass bottle as the reservoir – so it can go in the dishwasher, and doesn’t degrade in the sun.
The thread into the base is apparently the same as that for a 2 liter soda bottle, so you can more than double the size of the reservoir (See Notes)
Incredibly cheap!

Notes
1) Using a plastic soda bottle is fine as long as the sugar water supply is being used up within a few days. The sugar water tends to degrade a lot quicker in plastic containers than glass
2) I have not been successful in finding a soda bottle thread that works with these bases. If someone finds some, please let me know!
3) If anyone comes up with an easy, cheap way of using a soda bottle, and mounting it easily, please let me know!

 32oz Humdinger Feeder by Turbine Industries

Best 1 72oz Feeder:

Suitable for high population densities only

Benefits:
· It is available from here, for around $17 plus shipping.
· It has a two part base that is very easy to clean – it doesn’t have tight nooks where bacteria can accumulate (unlike every Perky Pet feeder)
The 72oz bottle is a large reservoir for sugar water. At peak times this is a blessing, so I don’t have to replenish feeders several times a day BUT, the bottle is UV resistant plastic, and the sugar water tends to go ‘off’ quicker than in glass bottles.
The thread into the base is apparently the same as that for a 2 liter soda bottle, so you can replace the standard bottle with a soda bottle if necessary (See Notes)
Relatively cheap!
The base for this feeder is similar to the Humdinger above. Furthermore, the supplier of the Best 1 feeder also supplies the 72oz bottle in isolation from the base, so it is a flexible solution too.

Notes
1) Using a plastic soda bottle is fine as long as the sugar water supply is being used up within a few days. The sugar water tends to degrade a lot quicker in plastic containers than glass

2) The plastic UV bottles are said to be UV resistant, however I have found they become very brittle after 2 seasons, and need replacement.

Best 1 Feeder – 72oz – recommended only for high hummingbird population densities

Feeders NOT Recommended:

Any type of Perky Pet hummingbird feeder. Yes, I know they are the easiest ones to find/buy, and the ones that most people use, BUT, they are very poorly designed. It would appear the Perky Pets company does not have the welfare of hummingbirds in mind when it designs its feeders. Every single model is supremely difficult to clean. There are crevices, notches and nooks where bacteria can and does accumulate very quickly. Even a determined effort with a purpose-made hummingbird feeder brush cannot dislodge the gunk that can produce disease. My advice is to steer clear of those at all costs. Furthermore, Perky Pets also offer red powdered “Hummingbird Nectar”, which again exposes their lack of compassion for animal welfare. Various texts on hummingbirds cite that the food coloring used in artificial hummingbird nectar is in fact carcinogenic to the birds. Nice one, Perky Pets……

Oh, and if you contact their customer support folks, expect a rude response – seems like they like their customers even less than hummingbirds.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 at 2:31 pm. It is filed under Hummingbird Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.