How to attract · species guide

How to Attract Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

How to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds combines a feeder and a garden: All About Birds' advice is a sugar-water feeder plus tubular flowers such as trumpet creeper, cardinal flower, honeysuckle, jewelweed and bee-balm ⁴.

Species facts are from All About Birds ⁴; feeder recipe and cleaning from FeederWatch ¹; plants from Audubon ³; windows from All About Birds ².

Male ruby-throated hummingbird at a red feeder — how to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds with sugar water and flowers — Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How to attract ruby-throated hummingbirds with a feeder

Make the mixture with about one-quarter cup of sugar per cup of water — FeederWatch's version is one part sugar to four parts boiling water, cooled — with no food coloring, which is unnecessary and, per FeederWatch, harmful; red portals or a red ribbon attract the birds just as well ¹⁴. Change the water before it grows cloudy or discolored, and remember that in hot weather sugar water ferments rapidly into toxic alcohol ⁴. Hummingbird feeders need cleaning more often than seed feeders — every couple of days, ideally at every refill — and at any sign of cloudy water or black mold, discard the solution and clean immediately ¹.

Feeders are generally safe for hummingbirds but can be a problem if they make the birds easy targets for cats — some cats learn to lie in wait — or if placed near windows the birds might fly into ⁴; treat nearby glass with 2-inch-spaced markings ².

Flowers that attract hummingbirds, and the garden

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds prefer red or orange flowers, and plant nectar sources: trumpet creeper, cardinal flower, honeysuckle, jewelweed and bee-balm ⁴; Audubon's list adds native columbine and penstemon ³. Cardinal flower depends on hummingbirds for pollination because most insects cannot navigate its long tubular flowers, and blooms May through October. They also catch insects in midair for protein ⁴, so an unsprayed garden feeds them twice.

Keep the birds you attract safe: windows, cats, clean feeders

Window collisions kill perhaps a billion or more birds a year in North America, and far more die at homes and low-rise buildings than at high-rises simply because there are so many of them ². Older rules about safe feeder-to-window distances are no longer thought valid; the fix is to make the glass visible — markings spaced no more than 2 inches apart on the outside, exterior screens, or hanging cords ¹².

Cats are the most numerous pet in North America and kill hundreds of millions of birds each year; ground-feeding birds, ground-nesting birds and fledglings are at greatest risk, and feeder birds are easy prey, so FeederWatch strongly recommends keeping cats indoors ¹. Clean seed and suet feeders every week or two — more often in heavy use or wet weather — with warm water and dish soap, since leftover seed and hulls harbor pathogens ¹.

Related guides for this bird

Species profile →Feeder guide →Plant guide →

More attraction guides

Attract birds to your yard →Attract birds to a feeder →Attract birds to a new feeder →Attract birds to a bird bath →Attract birds without a feeder →Bird calls to attract birds →Attract birds to your hand →Attract birds in winter →Balcony birding →Attract birds to a birdhouse →Birds that eat yard pests →How to attract american goldfinches →How to attract northern cardinals →How to attract black-capped chickadees →How to attract baltimore orioles →How to attract bluebirds →All guides →

Frequently asked questions

What is the sugar-water ratio for hummingbirds?

One part sugar to four parts water — about a quarter cup per cup — with no dye; change it before it clouds and clean the feeder every couple of days ¹⁴.

What flowers attract ruby-throated hummingbirds?

Red or orange tubular natives: trumpet creeper, cardinal flower, honeysuckle, jewelweed, bee-balm, columbine and penstemon ³⁴.