Practically everyone that goes to the effort of attracting hummingbirds to their backyards offer the birds food in feeders. However, with daily temperatures throughout Georgia hovering in the high 90s and heat indexes soaring well above the century mark, maintaining nectar that is safe for the tiny birds to eat is a challenge.  Here are a few tips that you might consider adopting to ensure the health of the hummers that dine at your hummingbird cafe.

1. Clean feeders at least twice as often during prolonged periods of high temperatures. Some people clean feeders twice a week during such times. If you do so, you will prevent the buildup of stubborn bacteria and fungus. Consequently, each cleaning will be much easier.

2. Keep from offering hummingbirds too much food. Don’t fill feeders to the brim if they consume only a fraction of food every few days. This ensures the birds are always feeding on fresh food.

3. If possible, move feeders to locations where they out of the direct sun during the hottest time of the day. This will help keep the sugar water from spoiling as quickly as it would in direct sunlight.

4. Offer hummingbird food in glass feeders. Hummingbird food will not spoil as quickly in feeders equipped with glass reservoirs.  This is because glass is a better insulator than plastic.

5. Try wrapping the reservoirs of your feeders with aluminum foil. Supposedly, aluminum foil will block UV rays and actually reflect 98% of the sun’s radiant energy, and therefore, keep nectar from overheating.  Folks are beginning to adopt this technique because some researchers are reporting that hummingbird nectar can get too hot.  Their studies suggest that hummingbirds feeding on sugar water heated to 102ºF can adversely affect their metabolic system.