the_kevin•4d agoProlific Poster

Placed a hummingbird feeder in direct sunlight and got zero visitors all June - moved it to a shaded spot and now I'm refilling every 3 days

I hung this fancy red feeder on a south-facing hook near my deck railing in Portland because I figured hummingbirds would see it better. For 4 weeks straight, not a single bird touched it, but my neighbor across the street has a feeder in full shade under a maple tree and she's swarmed daily. I finally moved mine under my own oak tree last Tuesday and had a male Anna's sipping within 2 hours. So which matters more for hummers - bright color visibility or keeping the nectar cool? Has anyone else had a feeder flop because of sun placement?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lisa4d ago

My buddy in Eugene had this exact same problem last summer. He put his feeder right on a metal pole in the full afternoon sun thinking they'd spot it from a mile away, but nothing touched it for like two weeks. He finally switched it to a spot under a big rhododendron bush where it was always shady, and he said the nectar was way less watery and the sugar didn't ferment so fast. The birds showed up within a day and now he's refilling every couple days too. I think the heat just ruins the nectar way faster than the color matters.

anna_carter534d ago

Whoa, wait. The metal pole in full afternoon sun? That part made me wince. I tried something similar a few years back, put a feeder on a bare shepherd's hook in the middle of my backyard and the nectar literally turned cloudy and gross within like 24 hours, it was so bad. Your buddy switching it to under a rhododendron is exactly what I had to do too, stuck mine under a big lilac bush and suddenly the hummingbirds were fighting over it. The heat really does mess with the sugar faster than anything else, I think.