Beautiful DIY Glass Bottle Hummingbird Feeder

I saw a report on our local news station about hummingbirds saying that this is the time when a huge migration of hummingbirds fly south to Mexico for the winter. Can you imagine those little tiny birds flying from as far away as Canada down to Mexico and Central America? That’s an insanely long journey, even for a human in a car! Apparently, they start the trip when the weather begins to cool and as flowers and food become more scarce. According to the report, now is a great time to keep the hummingbird feeders well stocked as these winged marvels need lots of fuel to make it to their final destination. 

Photo Credit: Perky-Pet Bird Feeders

I didn’t have a hummingbird feeder, so I went to my local bird center (you can check your local hardware stores) to see what they had. All the cheap feeders were plastic and not very appealing. The more attractive glass bottle variety were a lot more expensive. As I sat there looking at all the hummingbird feeders, I thought to myself, I could probably make my own DIY hummingbird feeder for a lot less and make it more beautiful.

How to Make a Beautiful DIY Glass Bottle Hummingbird Feeder

You really don’t need anything fancy to make your own DIY Glass Bottle Hummingbird Feeder. Just look in your recycling or fridge and finish that soda or wine that’s been in there forever. I’ve listed all the materials for you below.

Materials:

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• Glass or Plastic Bottle (Old Wine Bottles, Sparkling Water Bottles, Glass Soda Bottle, or Antique Glass Bottles)
• Copper Wire (thick and thin gauge)
• Hummingbird feeder spout

Instructions:

I made this quick video to show you exactly how to make your own bottle hummingbird feeder. Below are just simple instructions to follow.

1. Clean out your bottle very well using soap and water. Remove any labels (this is the absolutely best way to remove adhesive labels!)

2. Use a thick gauge copper wire to hang the glass bottle. First, bend a small curve at the bottom and feed it around the neck of the bottle. You can use a clamp to help get a tighter fit against the bottle’s neck.

3. Work your way up and around the sides of the bottle, twisting the glass bottle as you bend the wire. End at the base of the bottle.

4. Form a big curve and a curly Q at the bottom of the bottle (which will now be the top of the feeder) to act as a hanger.

For simplicity, I ordered these inexpensive hummingbird feeder tube spouts online that come with a red plastic flower and small feeding holes.

Optional: Before I fit the stopper into the neck of the bottle, I wrapped a smaller gauge copper wire around the spout and bent a small loop under the flower to create a small perch for the hummingbirds to rest on while feeding. Apparently, they will frequent the feeders that have a perch more than the kind they have to hover up to. They will also stick around longer.

And that’s how you make your own homemade hummingbird feeder using beautiful copper wire and a glass bottle.

Now it’s time to mix up a batch of hummingbird nectar to fill the bottle.

Hummingbird Nectar Recipe:

Create a sugar water mixture by using 4 parts water to 1 part sugar. Bring the water and sugar to a boil. Let it simmer for 5 minutes, then remove to cool. You can store the mixture for up to five days in the fridge.

After you fill up the feeder, hang the bottle outside a window so you can see all the pretty hummingbirds that come to your window.

It didn’t take long for the hummers to find my feeder.

Help! How Do I Deter Bees:

I have to be completely honest with you. After a few days of watching the hummingbirds come to the feeder, I got a very unexpected guest to the feeder. It was a honeybee. I didn’t think much of it because there were only one or two bees. But, then they must have spread the word, because soon it was a swarm. If you have any ideas how I can deter the bees, I’d love to hear it.

In the meantime, I’ve ordered two more spouts to try in the hopes that they don’t drip and hopefully that won’t attract the bees. These are the spouts I ordered:

3 Flower Hummingbird Feeder Spout

2 Flower Hummingbird Feeder Spout

I’ll be sure to report back as to how well they work. Until then, I hope you enjoy watching all the hummingbirds.

Pin this image to refer to at a later date:

If you liked this tutorial, you’ll also love this other simple DIY hummingbird feeder.