As I write this column, three angry hummingbirds are bickering over whose turn it is to perch at the feeder outside my office. Heaven forbid that they share. Dive-bombing one another must certainly be a whole lot more fun.
It’s been almost five years since I hung a feeder. I quit after having a six-foot-tall chain link fence installed in my back yard to keep Kamala, who could surely qualify for the high jump in the canine Olympics, safe. It was just too complicated to hang a feeder that I could see from my kitchen window that would be accessible to both me and the birds, so I didn’t even try.
Besides, from early spring until late in the fall, my yard is a smorgasbord. Dandelions. Bee balm. Black-eyed Susans. Four o’clocks. Daisies. Zinnias. Rose of Sharon. Two bird baths. Even without feeders, hummingbirds still show up.
Yeah, but I caught only an occasional glimpse. Surely, I thought, there must be a way to solve this problem. Rifling through a box of miscellaneous hardware, I found an artfully curved metal hook with a long, thin base. Could I wedge it between the fencing and the post and, if so, would it stick out far enough to allow the feeder to fit? Yes!
Now for the front porch off my home office. The porch used to be screened, but not anymore. It would be simple to hang a lightweight chain from a nail and hook the feeder onto it, right? Right. But wait. This feeder was fifteen feet above the ground. Was that too high? And though I have too many trees in my yard to count, none of them are close enough for hummingbirds to perch and check things out before swarming the feeder. Was that a deal killer? There was only one way to find out.
It was time to prepare some nectar. I boiled four cups of water and stirred in one cup of sugar. But no red food coloring, which is harmful to the birds. While the nectar cooled, I contemplated my sugar situation. Because I’m not a baker, I don’t keep much sugar on hand. What I do keep is stored in a name-brand Tupperware canister because it’s the only container I’ve found that keeps ants out. Rubbermaid doesn’t. OXO doesn’t. Ditto for glass jars with screw-on lids. It’s Tupperware or nothing.
Eager to see if this project was going to work, I popped the nectar into the refrigerator to speed up the cooling. Then I went to the basement and took a box labeled HUMMINGBIRD FEEDERS down from a high shelf. Inside were a quart-sized feeder and a pint-sized feeder. Also a one-cup feeder that’s very cute but more trouble than it’s worth. But what I chose were the two “flying saucer” feeders, not just because “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is one of my favorite movies, but because they’re easy to fill and easy to clean and the lids are fire-engine red.
I filled one feeder and hung it outside the office. Then I filed the second feeder, wondering if it was worth the trouble because—despite their amazing ability to hover–could and would hummingbirds fly through the openings in a chain link fence? I’d have to wait and see.
I hung that feeder and then went back to the office. Two hummingbirds were already fighting over who was going to drink first. Oh happy day!!! I stood and watched for a few minutes and then went to the kitchen window. Two hummingbirds were fighting over who was going to drink first from the backyard feeder. Were they the same birds? No way to know, but they were sure putting on a show.
Looks like I’m going to have to invest in more Tupperware. Because one canister of sugar almost certainly won’t be enough.
(August 9, 2025)