When the temperature is above 90 degrees your hummingbird feeder MUST be emptied, cleaned and refilled with fresh sugar water nectar daily.  The sugar ferments and grows mold and funguses when left in a feeder over 24 hours in excessive heat and can make a hummingbird deathly ill resulting in their slow death.

Here are some of the diseases an unclean feeder can spread:

• Candidiasis – caused when mold and fungus grows in the feeder.  The fungus can infect the hummingbirds tongue making it swell which makes it impossible for him to eat and the poor little guy starves to death.

• Aspergillosis – this is a common mold/fungus that infects unclean feeders.  This affects the gastrointestinal tract and again the bird experiences a slow death.

• Salmonellosis – this bacteria prevents the hummingbird from absorbing nutrients from their food which results in their death.

• Avian Poxvirus – is a tumor growth on a hummingbird’s beak.  An infected bird can infect many others when feeding at a feeder that is not regularly cleaned and maintained.  Thankfully, the virus lasts 7-14 days and most hummingbirds will recuperate.

If you are concerned about wasting your sugar mixture by emptying it daily, then don’t fill the feeder up, put a smaller amount in it until you see how much the birds use daily.

Please make sure you clean and refill your feeder daily, your Hummers will thank you daily with their visits to your feeder.