Introduction
When people see their neighbours setting up something near their porch, they might be wondering what it is. Moments later, they see those tiny little birds around it and it’s really quite entertaining to watch. That thing on their porch is actually a hummingbird feeder made especially for hummingbirds.
What are hummingbirds?
Humming birds are one of the smallest groups of birds in the world. They are also the only group of birds which has the capability to fly backwards. They also have these long thin bills which allow them to drink from the nectar of certain flowers. Hummingbirds are quite picky when it comes to choosing nectars. They only drink nectars which have high sugar content. Like any other birds, hummingbirds also feed on small insects for their protein source and other vitamins as well. These delightful little creatures, however, are only found in the Western hemisphere.
What are hummingbird feeders?
We can best define hummingbird feeders as man-made substitutes for flowers. There are some people who would find interest in attracting and looking at hummingbirds in their garden so they decided to make such hummingbird feeders. These hummingbird feeders may be purchased or home made. These contain a sugar solution made by mixing right amount of sugar and water and boiling it to avoid any contamination. This solution mimics the nectar found in flowers in which hummingbirds feed on. There are ready made solutions which can be bought in stores but most people prefer making them. Humming bird feeders also help feed hummingbirds especially if flowers aren’t much abundant in the area.
Hummingbird feeders may also cause infection to hummingbirds if people don’t know how to prepare the sugar solution due to contamination. So it would be best to make sure to prepare the solution right. Most hummingbird feeders would be plagued by insects, most especially by ants or even bees, and some birds may also feed themselves through these feeders causing them to topple down or be destroyed. It would be better to look for a perfect place for these hummingbird feeders.
How do they make humming bird feeders?
Making humming bird feeders is just easy and there are a lot of ways to make it. There are step by step instructions which can be found in some websites such as ehow.com, worldofhummingbirds.com, howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com and many more. There are also some videos that you can watch in youtube.com for a more visual step by step instruction on how to make hummingbird feeders. Usually, these feeders would include materials such as plastic bottles and bottle caps, jar caps or caps that are bigger than the bottle caps, and a hook and eye to hang the feeder. The usual equipment or tools that are used to make these feeders are drills (for making holes on the bottle caps) and glue guns (to glue in the bottle cap and another bigger cap). Some people also choose to decorate their humming bird feeders by creating some plastic or paper flowers and putting them around the bottom of the feeder. They either color these with red or yellow to attract humming birds.
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