The Perfect Height To Hang A Hummingbird Feeder In Your Yard To Enjoy More Visitors

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It's a delight watching hummingbirds darting around in all directions in your garden, sipping on nectar and in the process pollinating your plants. They use a lot of energy flapping their wings at 50 beats per second, so encouraging hummingbirds to your yard by providing them with sugar water in a feeder repays them for the joy they provide you. Knowing how high to hang your feeder is important to make that gift exchange successful. The short answer: At or above eye level in an open area. This will attract hummingbirds, but keep away their predators and reduce the likelihood of their food going rancid or being stolen by other creatures.

Ideally, place the feeder around 6 feet high, just above eye level for most people, but not out of their reach. In the wild, hummingbirds feed on flowering shrubs, ornamental flowers, insects, and spiders, but not high in trees. A feeder at 6 feet mimics that, but also keeps the birds safe from predators. Many cats can jump to that height, but hummingbirds might not even look for and find your feeder if it's much higher than six feet. Humans also need to be able to easily reach the feeder in order to clean and refill it frequently, so as to prevent disease. A bird feeder pole or a 6-foot (or higher) shepherd's hook, like this adjustable double shepherd's hook from Amazon, can allow you to hang the feeder at eye level.

You also want to place the feeder at eye level in an open area so that you and the birds can actually see it. If you can't see it, you aren't going to be regularly reminded to clean it – let alone enjoy the birds visiting it. A feeder in an open area also helps hummingbirds find it for the first time. It gives them the ability to be aware of their surroundings and not be surprised by potential predators hiding in nearby shrubs or trees. An open area near or in your garden, planted with flowers that attract hummingbirds, gives the hummingbirds another source of food.

Placing the feeder in an open area away from trees also makes it harder for squirrels to jump from a branch to a feeder. Add a squirrel baffle to your feeder pole to prevent squirrels from climbing it, or use an old glass jar as a hummingbird feeder that squirrels cannot access. A pole or hook can also be moved from place to place, which disrupts the scented trail that ants leave to direct other ants to the feeder. Just remember that sugar water in an open area in the sunlight doesn't stay as fresh as long as it would if it were in the shade, so you'll have to replace it more frequently. But since you can see your eye-level hummingbird feeder and yet can reach it, that shouldn't be a problem.