Bird is the Word

Title: Bird is the Word
Description: Learn about hummingbird habits by building your own feeder and observing the way these tiny birds interact with each other.
Season: All year
Length of Activity: 30 minutes
Age: Any age

Bird is the Word

Did you know that there are more than 18,000 bird species in the world? Of those 18,000, 325 of them are unique hummingbird species.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are lucky enough to be home to 4 different breeds!

Have you ever seen a hummingbird? Aren’t they magnificent?

The average hummingbird weighs just a little over one ounce. That’s roughly the same weight as a slice of bread and less than the weight of a nickel! And because they can reach forward speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, they need lots of energy.
They often eat 1.5 to 3 times their body weight in food per day. But in order to do so, they must visit hundreds of flowers to gather enough nectar to survive.

By making a hummingbird feeder and hanging it in your yard, you’ll make their hungry hunt a little easier and, on cold days, maybe even save their lives!

Supplies and Tools needed:

• 4-ounce Mason jar
• Red plastic office folder
• Pen
• ScissorsHole puncher
• ½ cup sugar
• Hanging Mason jar lid (Buy it: Mason Jar Black Chain Hanging Lid, $3, Michaels)Getting startedStep 1: Remove the rubber seal and metal lid from your mason jar. You won’t be using them for this project.
  Step 2: Hummingbirds are attracted to bright colors, use the metal lid to trace a perfect circle on the red plastic office folder to make a new lid.
  Step 3: Cut the circle out and use your hole puncher to punch 4 holes in it.
  Step 4: Make hummingbird nectar by adding 1/2 cup of sugar to 2 cups of water. It’s easy to microwave the sugar water briefly and stir to dissolve the sugar or you can bring it to a low boil in a saucepan on the stove.
  Step 5: Fill the Mason jar with the nectar and assemble the jar using the hanging Mason jar lid.
  Step 6: Go outside and hang your feeder somewhere you can observe it.

Taking it Deeper

• Make a bird notebook and jot down your daily observations.
• Choose a time that works for you, for example, every day after breakfast, and observe your feeder quietly for 5 minutes.
• How many hummingbirds come to feed?
• What color are they?
• Do they all look the same?
• Do they seem to like to feed together? Or do they sometimes squabble with each other at the feeder?
• Where do you think they might go after they take a drink?

Try to draw a picture of a hummingbird or click here to print a hummingbird to color.