Thanks for sharing your experience! I find that the larger Hummzingers tend to get off balance too – so the smaller size is easier to hang and keep oriented properly too.

Hummingbirds have little to no sense of smell. My personal favorite is the Hummzinger. They are the only ones that let you see into the reservoir. You can actually see their little tongues lapping up the “juice”! Fascinating! Simple to clean with a sponge and a pipe cleaner and it’s simple to refill if you just hold the post while pouring it in. I live in California and have hummers year round and they all love it. The plastic is no problem. I have had 3 of these for several years and they’re still working perfectly. Buy the smaller size, though. They can’t empty the big one before the water goes bad and it doesn’t matter how many ports there are. Hummingbirds are very territorial and will chase other hummers away from “their” feeder anyway, so it’s very unusual to see more than one drinking at a time. At least that’s the way it is here, with the Anna’s Hummingbird.

Thanks for your comment, Jim. That’s very interesting to hear that in your experience, your birds prefer one feeder over another. I did not include bird preference as a factor in this review. I have had a couple of the different feeders up in the same location at the same time and did not notice a preference by the birds. My biggest factors for consideration in this review were the ability to keep the feeder clean (thus, keep the hummingbirds healthy), sturdiness, features, and ease of use. This sounds like an interesting start to a new experiment for me to try next summer!

They are a ton of fun to watch! Smart way to use only a little bit of nectar at a time.

Why are you saying that the best-I hummingbird feeder is killing hummingbirds? I’m curious.

Dorotea, my experience with the best one feeder that I have has been good. I have had one of these (though I’ve gone through two) for over 7 years and not had any issues with it. Hummingbirds are able to use it easily and it cleans well.

I’m not familiar with the reviews that you mention, though I have seen one review from 2005 that discussed issues with the holes – but at the end of the review (March 2005) the reviewer stated that the lid had been redesigned (http://www.hummingbirds.net/best1mod.html#update). I don’t believe I have ever used one with the earlier design that may have had a problem.

Well that’s another product I wasn’t familiar with. Interesting!