Last updated: August 21, 2026
The question usually arrives about a week after the feeder goes up. The sugar water works, the birds came, and now it feels like there should be a next step: a supplement, a vitamin drop, something with protein in it, maybe a splash of juice so they get more than empty calories. Feeder aisles are full of products that quietly encourage the thought.
The honest answer is that the feeder has exactly one job and the published recipes have exactly two ingredients. Everything else a hummingbird needs comes from your yard rather than your kitchen. Here is what belongs in the reservoir, what belongs near it, and what people try that the sources specifically warn about.
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Quick Answer
What goes in a hummingbird feeder besides sugar water?
- Nothing. The published Audubon and Cornell Lab recipes are refined white sugar and water, full stop.
- No honey, no red dye, no brown sugar, no artificial sweetener, no juice, no vitamins.
- Protein comes from insects and spiders they catch themselves, not from anything you pour in.
- Oranges and jelly are an oriole thing. They go in an oriole feeder, not in the hummingbird one.
Bottom line: keep the reservoir boring and put your effort into the yard around it.
The Whole Ingredient List
Two things. Audubon’s published recipe is a quarter cup of refined white sugar dissolved in one cup of boiling water, cooled before it goes out. Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch gives the same proportion as one part sugar to four parts boiling water. Neither adds a third ingredient, and neither leaves room for one.
What makes that hard to accept is that it sounds too simple for a wild animal. It is simple because it is a fuel stop, not a diet. The feeder replaces a flower, and a flower is sugar and water too.
Where the Protein Actually Comes From
From bugs, and they handle it themselves. Cornell Lab’s species accounts describe hummingbirds taking small insects and spiders alongside nectar, which is where the protein, fat and minerals come from. Nothing you can add to sugar water substitutes for that, which is why no published recipe tries.
What That Means for Your Yard
It means the insect side of the yard is worth more than any additive. Audubon’s guidance on feeder pests also asks people to keep an insecticide free yard, on the grounds that pesticides injure and kill birds and insects alike. A yard with spiders and gnats in it is a yard with hummingbird food in it.
The Additives People Try
Four come up constantly: honey, brown or raw sugar, artificial sweetener and red dye. The first and last have named warnings attached, and the middle two simply are not what the recipes specify. None of them is a small improvement on plain sugar water, they are all a step away from it.
Audubon’s nectar page warns against honey because it can promote dangerous fungal growth, and against red food coloring as unnecessary and possibly harmful. Project FeederWatch says flatly not to add red food coloring. The dye question gets its own walkthrough in our piece on red dye in nectar.
Juice, Jello, Gatorade and Other Kitchen Ideas
They show up in yard forums every summer and none of them appears in any published guidance. Fruit juice, drink powders, sports drinks and gelatin all bring in acids, salts, dyes and solids that the recipe never called for, and they all ferment faster than plain sugar water in a warm feeder.
The practical objection is as strong as the sourcing one. Anything with pulp or gel in it turns a set of narrow feeding ports into a cleaning problem within days, and you will meet the result as a black film in the reservoir. Our easy to clean feeder guide exists because that job is unpleasant enough with plain nectar.
What Orioles Get Instead
Orioles are the reason half the “what else can I put in there” questions get asked, because they turn up at hummingbird feeders and are obviously too big for the ports. They get their own feeder with wider ports, orange halves and a jelly dish, not a modified hummingbird reservoir.
Project FeederWatch does note a more diluted sugar water for orioles, one part sugar to six parts water, which is a different mix in a different feeder. Our oriole feeder guide covers the hardware side, and grape jelly for orioles covers how much jelly is too much.
What Goes Near the Feeder, Not In It
Everything else a hummingbird wants is a yard feature rather than an ingredient. Nectar plants, a perch within a few feet, moving water fine enough to bathe in, and shade over the feeder so the nectar is not sitting in full sun all afternoon. Those change how long birds stay.
Shade in particular is doing double duty, because it slows the spoilage clock as well as making the spot comfortable. If your only hanging point is a bare sunny hook, a built in roof helps, which is the whole premise of a feeder with shade.
In and Out at a Glance
The table sorts the usual suggestions into what the published recipes contain and what they do not, with the practical consequence in the last column.
| Item | In the feeder? | What the sources say | Practical result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refined white sugar | Yes | The only sugar in the Audubon and FeederWatch recipes | Dissolves clean, no residue |
| Water | Yes | Heated to dissolve, cooled before filling | Mix keeps a few days in the fridge |
| Honey | No | Audubon: can promote dangerous fungal growth | Clouds and spoils quickly |
| Red food coloring | No | Audubon: unnecessary, could prove harmful. FeederWatch: do not add | Hides the cloudiness you need to see |
| Juice, jelly, gelatin | No | Not in any published recipe | Clogs ports, forces daily cleaning |
Sources for that table are Audubon’s hummingbird nectar guidance and the feeding pages of Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch. Where a row says the sources are silent, treat the silence as the answer rather than as a gap to fill.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I put anything in a hummingbird feeder besides sugar water? No, and that is the consistent line from both Audubon and Cornell Lab’s Project FeederWatch. Their recipes contain refined white sugar and water and nothing else. Protein and minerals come from the insects and spiders the birds catch on their own.
Is honey a natural alternative to sugar? Audubon warns against it specifically, saying honey can promote dangerous fungal growth. Natural does not mean suitable here. Plain white sugar is what the recipe calls for.
Do hummingbirds need vitamins or electrolytes added? Nothing in the published guidance says so, and no source recommends a supplement in the feeder. Products that promise extra nutrition are making a claim the sources do not.
Can I put oranges or jelly in my hummingbird feeder? Not in the hummingbird one. Those are oriole foods and they need an oriole feeder with wider ports and a jelly dish. Orioles will visit a hummingbird feeder and simply be unable to use it.
Should I use bottled or filtered water? The recipes say water without qualifying it. If your tap water is fine to drink, it is fine here. What matters more is heating it enough to dissolve the sugar and letting it cool before it goes out.
What about the powdered nectar mixes sold in stores? Read the ingredient list. If it stops at sugar, it is doing the same job as the sugar in your cupboard. If it runs on into dyes, flavors and preservatives, you are buying additions the sources never asked for.
The Bottom Line
The reservoir gets sugar and water, in the proportion Audubon and Cornell Lab publish, and nothing else. Everything that looks like an upgrade is either unnecessary, specifically warned against, or a cleaning problem waiting for a hot week. Put the effort into shade, insects and flowers instead. Read next: our hummingbird feeder guide for choosing the feeder itself, and the saucer feeder guide if you would rather refill something that opens flat in the sink.