Internet Radio - Listen to Free Music You'll Love. Internet Radio - Listen to Free Music You'll Love. Great Garden Plants – Your Online Plant Nursery for Thuja Green Giant, Flowering Shrubs, Perennials, KnockOut Roses, Grasses, Hedge Plants, Green Giant Thujas, Coneflowers, Hydrangeas, Heucheras, Sedums, Ornamental Grass, Burning Bush, Boxwood. National Gardening Association. Yard and Garden. Gardening. Hummingbird Feeders. Jump to: Ants Bees Recipe Cleaning Hummingbirds get the energy they need to maintain their astonishing metabolism primarily from flower nectar and the sugar water they find at feeders (here's the recipe).
For protein and other nutrients, they also eat soft-bodied insects and spiders; I like Bob Sargent's perspective: "Hummers need nectar to power the bug eating machine that they are. " Think of them as miniature flycatchers, and sugar is just the fuel for getting their real nourishment. You might try setting out some overripe fruit--banana peels are good--to attract flies for your hummers.