Watching Wildlife

February 22, 2010

Is This the World’s Best Hummingbird Feeder?

Filed under: Uncategorized — birdfeeders @ 5:55 pm  Tagged , , ,

Love My Birds Hummingbird Feeder

Love My Birds Hummingbird Feeder

Hummingbird feeders come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but for years the fundamental designs fall into 3 basic concepts; saucer shaped, inverted bottle feeders, and globe shaped feeders. No matter how fancy or plain the model you choose, there haven’t been any significant improvements in the basic design of hummingbird feeders for a long time. Until now.

Now there’s the Hum Sweet Hum hummingbird feeder, a completely re-engineered feeder that has significantly raised the bar for quality in hummingbird feeders. Created by a small company in the Mid-West, the Hum Sweet Hum is the Mercedes Benz of hummingbird feeders; great looking, beautifully engineered and packed with intelligent, practical features that make this the most hummingbird-friendly and easiest to use of any hummingbird feeder we’ve seen.

At first glance, the Hum Sweet Hum looks like a conventional saucer shaped hummingbird feeder. But on closer inspection, you notice that instead of the usual few feeding ports around the perimeter of conventional saucer feeders, the Hum Sweet Hum has 54 raised, faceted ports in a geometric array on the top of the feeder. This design simulates living flowers that are the hummingbirds’ natural feeding environment and helps attract more birds. The raised ports also keep rain from entering the reservoir and diluting the nectar and also help discourage insects from getting at the hummingbird nectar. The feeder includes a built in 4 oz. ant moat and perches for the birds surround the feeder.

The Hum Sweet Hum’s thoughtful design makes filling the 16 ounce reservoir a breeze and offers you two ways of doing it. To fill the feeder, you remove the top. Once that’s done, You can either add sugar directly into a built-in measuring unit in the feeder, add water to the specified level and mix the nectar right in the feeder reservoir or you can pour nectar you’ve pre-mixed directly into the feeder. When the hummingbirds have emptied the feeder, regular cleaning – which is so important with hummingbird feeders – is as easy as running the feeder through the dishwasher since the Hum Sweet Hum is dishwasher safe.

This hummingbird feeder is designed to be either hung or pole mounted and the manufacturer’s eye for detail even extends to the hanging hook (included) which has an extra large diameter to make it easier to hang anywhere. The feeder is available as a single feeder and also as a two tiered feeder and three tiered feeder. Heavy duty construction and the tough UV resistant polycarbonate materials make this an extremely durable hummingbird feeder that will last a lifetime and attract lots of hummingbirds to your garden. Hum Sweet Hum is designed and manufactured in the U.S and carries a lifetime guarantee.

There may be hummingbird feeders that are more decorative, and there may be  some that are cheaper, but we haven’t seen one that is more thoughtfully designed, more ruggedly engineered or that gives better value for the price than the Hum Sweet Hum. If you are serious about feeding hummingbirds, without a doubt this is the hummingbird feeder to have.

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January 18, 2010

Feeding Birds in Winter

Filed under: Uncategorized — birdfeeders @ 5:43 pm  Tagged , , , ,

A male downy woodpecker at a suet feeder

A male downy woodpecker at a suet feeder

Not all wild birds migrate south in winter. Depending on where you live, you may see nuthatches, cardinals, waxwings, wild pigeons, owls, woodpeckers, chickadees, grosbeaks, finches, redpolls, crossbills, snow buntings, magpies, jays, ravens, crows, house sparrows, and starlings during the winter months.  Winter is a difficult time for those birds that don’t migrate. They endure bitter cold and snowstorms which stress their systems at a time when food is scarce. Berries, fruit and insects are gone, and snow may blanket natural seeds that birds might feed on. Even if you don’t feed birds at other times of the year, winter is a good time to put out a bird feeder or two.

An easy way to get started feeding birds in winter is to make a peanut butter and pine cone feeder. This is a great winter time project to do with your kids.  All you need is a 10” piece of wire or a pipe cleaner, a pine cone, and some crunchy peanut butter (creamy peanut butter will do, but the birds really enjoy the peanut bits in crunchy peanut butter). Wrap one end of the wire securely around the pine cone’s stem. With a knife, pack the peanut butter into all the spaces in the pine cone. If you have some chopped nuts or bird seed, roll the peanut butter-packed pine cone in the nuts or seeds. Using the wire you attached, hang the pine cone from a tree branch so that it is at least five feet above the ground. The birds will love it.

Fatty foods like peanut butter are important for birds in winter. Fat is metabolized into energy much more efficiently than seeds and helps birds maintain their body temperature and endure the cold.

Suet Feeders are another great way to feed birds fatty high energy food in winter. Suet is the hard fat trimmed from veal or beef and it’s an excellent source of energy for birds. You can purchase cakes of suet mixed with seeds, bits of fruit or berries, nuts, corn meal or peanut butter. These fit into most commercial suet feeders and provide a terrific source of nutrition and energy for birds.

Suet feeders come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Whether you render suet to make your own suet cakes (for instructions and recipes, click here) or buy commercial cakes, the simplest way to offer suet to your wild birds is to use the mesh bag from a bag of onions. Just place a suet cake in the mesh bag, twist the neck of the bag securely, and hang it from a tree branch.

If you prefer, you can purchase several styles of suet feeders:

Simple box shaped suet feeders are the least expensive. These are coated wire cages that hold standard size commercial suet cakes. You can buy single feeders that hold one suet cake or double feeders to hold two.

Bottom Feed Suet Feeders are designed for clinging birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, titmice or woodpeckers who like to hang upside down as they feed.

Decorative suet feeders If you’re looking for attractive design as well as a practical way to provide suet to the birds, decorative suet feeders offer a range of attractive designs. Our favorite in this category is Erva’s Seed Cake Suet Bird Feeder.

Whichever way you choose to feed them, feeding birds in winter will provide a much needed nutritional boost for the birds and a rewarding experience for you.

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