Hummingbird Feeder Leaking
Hummingbird season is one of the best times of year for backyard birders. We all love watching the little flying jewels zip and dart from flower to flower, or from flower to hummingbird feeder. That said, the season becomes a little less fun when you have problems with your feeders — and particularly when they leak. Here’s some possible reasons your hummingbird feeder is leaking, and a few ways to possibly fix it.
Issues With the Seal
If your feeder is several years old, you may want to check the seal (also sometimes referred to as the gasket) to see if it hasn’t worn down or cracked. If a seal is faulty, that means the sugar water can leak out. Also, full feeders seem to retain their contents more than partially filled feeders.
If a bad seal is to blame for your leak issue, you may be able to replace it (contact the feeder’s manufacturer, or check at a local bird-feeding store) or patch it with nontoxic materials. Ultimately, if leaking continues, it is better to invest in a new feeder as leaking can attract ants and other insects.
Leaky Dirty Hummingbird Feeder
Sugar or dirt and gunk buildup in the ports of hummingbird feeders that are not properly cleaned. Once this occurs, the feeder may leak as the seal cannot appropriately stop the sugar-water. The good news is, it’s a simple solution: just make sure to wash your hummingbird feeder twice a week while temperatures are high, and at least once a week when it’s cooler.
Hummingbird Leaking
Crack in Hummingbird Feeder
If your feeder is glass or plastic, look for cracks or chips in its surface. A broken feeder may be dripping sugar-water inside — and starving your hummingbirds. As with poor seal problems, you may be able to fix the feeder (use only nontoxic substances that won’t harm hummingbirds, of course), but it’s probably time to purchase a new feeder.
Weather-Related Problems
As the temperatures rise, the sugar-water in your feeder can expand. That means there’s more pressure on the seal, which can cause the hummingbird food to spill out. As the weather starts to get colder, the pressure eases and the leak should stop.” On hot summer days, you could try putting the feeder in the shade.
Wind could also shake the hummingbird feeder, and tip the glass sideways so that it spills. If this is an issue, you might have to remove the feeder for a short period on a windy day. Larger glass feeders are generally heavier and not prone to tipping over.
Reader Becky Smock Ellison says, “I use glass feeders and they’re heavy enough to not swing back and forth in the wind. Swing in the wind, they leak from the feeding places.”
Try a Saucer Feeder
If you want to avoid using a hummingbird feeder that’s less prone to leaking in general, consider a saucer-style hummingbird feeder for your yard. A saucer feeder has a shallow bowl of sugar-water resting beneath the perches, as opposed to an inverted bottle stuck in the middle of a feeder screwed into the base.
Saucer feeders do not require sugar-water to flow downward and tends to leak less, as the openings are raised. This means a saucer feeder can remain effective longer — and hummingbirds suck it up the same.
Reader Veronica Lobmeyer advises, “Buy a saucer type instead of the gravity-fed type, because gravity-fed [feeders] all leak eventually.”
MD Imdadul Haque is the founder of BirdzFly, a research-backed resource on North American backyard birds. Drawing on years of independent study into bird identification, behavior, and migration patterns, he writes in-depth guides designed to help US birders understand the species in their own backyards — from common feeder visitors to seasonal migrants passing through.
