Ask anyone who has fed hummingbirds for a few years and you hear the same story. The first feeder didn't work out, and neither did the second.
Here's the first problem, and it's the one that stings. You spend real money on a pretty feeder, glass or fancy metal. You hang it where you can see it from the kitchen window. Then you wait.
One or two birds show up all season. Sometimes none. Meanwhile the neighbor's plain red feeder has a crowd.
It isn't your yard. Hummingbirds go for bright red and yellow flowers, not for what looks nice to us. People who have fed them for years say the same thing: the fancy ones sit empty while the plain red feeders stay busy.
The second problem is that most feeders don't last. Glass breaks the first time a squirrel gets curious. Metal rusts, and the birds come less once it starts to smell. Thin plastic turns brittle and cracks.
And the cheap ones leak. A slow drip down the outside, a sticky mess on the deck, and plenty of them end up in the trash within a week.
The ones that survive have one last trick. If you can't get inside to scrub them, mold moves into the corners, and hummingbirds are sensitive to mold. A rinse doesn't reach it.
So people do the natural thing. They give up and throw it out. Not because they lost interest in the birds. Because the feeder never gave the birds a reason to stay.
That's exactly why we wrote this guide.
We put five of the most popular feeders through the same seven checks. Most failed at least one. Only one passed all seven.
Below you'll find what actually separates a feeder you keep from one you quietly retire, what to look for before you spend anything, and the five we ranked.
First, what is really at stake when a feeder goes bad.
