Over the years, we’ve fed a lot of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Back in 2009, we had so many hummingbirds that it was almost annoying. Check out the video below. It starts out slow but wait for the end. Sadly, there was a hurricane during migration the next year and we’ve never had quite so many birds since then, but we still get a lot.

This year, we have about 14 “steady customers” coming to our feeders. Lately, I got the notion of hand feeding the hummers. They are already pretty much used to me coming out and refilling their feeders or working in the garden, so I thought it wouldn’t really be a big deal.

And it wasn’t.

Turns out, during late July/early August, it’s pretty easy to get some birds to take a chance and come to a hand feeder. Anything can be a hand feeder, even just a tube or small bowl filled with some sugar water. (The sugar water should be about 4:1, that is, I use 4 teaspoons (tsp) of water and 1 tsp of sugar to fill my hand feeder. I use the same ratio for our feeders.

Late July/early August is good for trying this because that’s when there are a lot of juvenile/immature hummingbirds around and they are the most likely to try something new simply because they are still learning about the world around them. Following them will be the mature males, with the mature females being the last to try the risky behavior of sipping from a hand feeder.

Here is what I did. The main requirement is a lot of patience, quietness, and the ability to remain still.

Step 1: Watching your hummingbirds at the feeders (you’ll need to have established feeders that draw hummingbirds). They will generally come in waves: you’ll get a lot for a few minutes then they will all disappear for five or ten minutes, then they will return. Try to set yourself up during one of the lulls between waves.

Note: I initially placed a chair with arms between the feeders so that I could rest my arm on one of the arm rests to keep it still for long periods of time. I later discovered that the birds much preferred me to be in a standing position, so I moved to the porch overlooking the feeders and rested my wrist on the railing. My theory is that when I was sitting, I looked larger overall and more like a predator crouching before springing to attack. Standing, I presented a slimmer overall profile and was positioned more like a very large flower or tree.

Step 2: Prepare your sugar syrup and hand feeder. Take down the feeders the birds are used to using and sit or stand in that area so that the hummers will only have one choice if they want to get some syrup: they will have to use your hand feeder.

Step 3: Wait. Stay very still and very quiet. When the next wave of hummingbirds showed up, they chittered and flew around and then left. But in the next wave, one of the juvenile males decided to take a chance and sipped a few times from my hand feeder. It was probably about 15 minutes into the session. But I had to wait another 10 minutes before that same bird tried again.

For the first several sessions, it was basically the same juvenile male that kept trying my hand feeder. The feeder I have was not designed properly in that the perch was too low for a hummingbird to perch on it and still feed. The male that wanted to use my hand feeder kept trying to perch in the edge of the feeder and slipping off, so I took a heavy piece of wire and wrapped it around the feeder so he could perch. The wire scared him initially, but he soon became used to it and perched on it just fine.

Hummingbird feeding

Ruby-throated Hummingbird sipping from my hand feeder

After your first success: I found that after the first few times (and I did this every day for about three days) I could leave the feeders in place. I also moved to the porch, which made the birds happier. Another thing that helped was that after I’d hand fed the birds, I’d leave the hand feeder on the porch railing so they’d get used to that location. By doing that, I got more birds than just the initial juvenile male to come to the feeder when I was holding it.

But I did need to remain motionless and hold the feeder steady, so resting my wrist against the porch railing really helped when I stopped sitting. The downside is that every time I go out on the porch now, a few birds buzz me to see if I’ve got the hand feeder with me.

I can live with that.