How to Make Your Own Hummingbird Feeder

Placing hummingbird feeders in your yard or garden is a great way to attract these fascinating pollinators in the spring and summer months. Since hummingbirds consume about half their weight in sugar every day and have an impressive geographical memory when it comes to food sources, you’ll likely see them come back again and again if you’re providing the sugar water they love.

Learn how to attract hummingbirds to your yard with these DIY hummingbird feeder projects made with a Mason jar or wine bottle.

Mason Jar Hummingbird Feeder

Supplies you’ll need:

• 4-ounce Mason jar
• Red plastic folder (Hummingbirds are attracted to bright red, so keep that in mind when placing or decorating your feeders.)
• Pen
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Hanging Mason jar band
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup cane sugar

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How to make it:

1. Remove the original lid and band from the Mason jar. Place the lid without the band on top of the red folder and use the pen to trace around the outside of the lid. Use scissors to cut the traced circle out of the folder, then punch four equally spaced holes through the circle. Put your new red “lid” into the hanging Mason jar band.
2. To prepare the hummingbird nectar, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Stir the sugar into the boiling water until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set the nectar aside to cool completely. (Always use a 1 to 4 ratio of sugar to water to prepare the nectar.)
3. Once the nectar has cooled, fill the Mason jar with it and attach the new feeder lid to the jar. Hang your feeder from a tree limb and watch for hummingbirds!

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Recycled Wine Bottle Hummingbird Feeder

Supplies you’ll need:

• Empty, cleaned wine bottle
• 3-4 feet of 6- or 8-gauge copper wire
• Pliers
• Bolt cutters
• 3 cups water
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• Hummingbird feeder tube
• Red ribbon or paint, optional

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How to make it:

1. Using the pliers, make a loop in one end of the copper wire that is slightly wider than the wine bottle’s neck. Slip the loop onto the wine bottle and wrap the wire around the neck of the bottle a second time. Begin wrapping the wire around the body of the bottle in coils until about 8 inches of wire remain.
2. Bend the end of the wire to create the hook from which the bottle will hang from a tree limb. Stretch the wire coils out across the body of the bottle to arrange them how you like, leaving the hook hanging from the bottle’s bottom (now the top of the feeder).
3. To prepare the hummingbird nectar, bring the water to a boil over high heat. Stir the sugar into the boiling water until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set the nectar aside to cool completely. (Always use a 1 to 4 ratio of sugar to water to prepare the nectar.)
4. Fill the bottle with cooled hummingbird nectar and insert the hummingbird feeder tube into the bottle’s opening.
5. Decorate the outside of the bottle with red ribbon or paint. (This step is optional, but the red color will help to attract the hummingbirds to the feeder.)
6. Hang the bottle from a tree limb and wait for hungry hummingbirds to arrive.