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Lauren Vogelbaum here.

A hummingbird feeder can be a thrilling addition to any summertime yard.

Hummingbirds are vibrant, acrobatic little

flyers that evolved to eat a lot of natural nectar from flowers to fuel their insanely high metabolism.

After all, during flight, they beat their wings an average of 50 times per second.

Flowers should provide their primary caloric source, along with a few bugs

that they pick off of leaves or snatch from mid-air to fill out their complement of nutrients.

You can look up lists of native plants for your garden to help attract and feed hummingbirds,

but you can also supplement their caloric needs by feeding hummingbirds with a well-placed sugar-water

feeder. Today, let's talk about how to keep a hummingbird feeder that's both entertaining for you

and good for the birds. Sugar water feeders are a nice gesture for your local hummingbirds.

These vessels can help them get through the times of year when there aren't as many flowers around. However, since feeders are a huge draw for these tiny birds, it's

extremely important to keep them clean and safe. Hummingbirds eat by lapping up liquid food

at lightning speed, using a flexible tongue that's so long that it retracts in a coil that

rests in their skull around their eyes. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red because

they associate red flowers with higher nutrient nectar. That's why many sugar water feeders are made

with red plastic pieces, but this isn't a requirement, and red food coloring

definitely should not be used in the sugar water.

Unfortunately, hummingbird feeders are great places for bacteria and fungi to grow. Of course,

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