Hummingbird Feeder Directions:

1. Clean your small glass babyfood jars well.
2. Have a grown-up help you to make four holes in each cap with the nail and hammer.
3. Paint a red flower on the cap with your acrylic paint
4. Paint several more red flowers on the glass jar, but you’ll want to allow space for the hummingbird food to show through.

Humingbird Nectar Directions:

1. With the help of a grown-up, heat the water in a saucepan to a boil.
2. Add the sugar and the beet juice and stir until it is dissolved. The beet juice makes the hummingbird nectar red  (their favorite color!) and it’s very important not to use red food coloring since it could harm the them!
3. Let the hummingbird nectar cool completely.
4. Pour the nectar into the jars until they are about 3⁄4 full, and screw the caps on tightly.
5. Cut a piece of string about 3 feet long and tie one end around the mouth of the jar firmly.
6. Hang it on a tree branch, but make sure that it’s high enough that the cats can’t reach it!
7. Don’t give up! It may take several weeks for hummingbirds to find your feeder. Just change the nectar every few days and keep your feeder clean. You can refrigerate the leftover nectar for up to two weeks.

Cool Facts About Hummingbirds:

• Hummingbirds are the smallest of all birds – usually only about 3 inches long
• Hummingbird eggs are so small that a penny could cover 3 of them!
• Hummingbirds can fly up to 50 miles per hour
• Hummingbirds can fly backwards, or hover in mid-air with up to 200 wingbeats per minute
• Their heart beats up to 1,260 times per minute during the day and slows down to about 50 heartbeats per minute at night
• They breathe about 250 times per minute while resting
• Hummingbirds have to eat their own weight each day in sugar water and nectar (so keep their feeders filled!)