H u m m i n g b i r d s Are Sugar Junkies By Izabella and Korbyn Powers
The question Do hummingbirds like a little bit of sugar or lots of sugar?
Hypothesis Our hypothesis was that the hummingbirds would go for the 1/2cup of sugar instead of the 1/8. We were right.
Material list 1. Three hummingbird feeders. 2. Two measuring cups. 3. Three cups of water. 4. Sugar. 5. Pipe for the hummingbird feeders to hang on.
Procedure We first put one cup of water with a half cup of Sugar. We mixed it and put it in the microwave and stirred it again and put it in a feeder. Then we put a cup of water with ¼ sugar we put it in the microwave then mixed and put it in the second feeder. We started again with the third feeder. It has one cup water like the others but 1/8 cup sugar. We put it in the microwave, stirred it then put it in the feeder. We watched for one week to see what would happen.
Observation There was a hummingbird that came around the feeders and tried them. He tried the ¼ first it had 2 sips of that and then to the 1/2 cup sugar it had 4. It liked that one it came back in about 2 minutes It took 7 big sips out of the 1/2 cup sugar it sure liked that one.
Measurements These are the measurements of how much the hummingbirds had left in their feeders after one week. Each hummingbird feeder holds 250 ml. liquid. The 1/8 has 248 ml. the 1/4 has 220 ml. the1/2 has 150 ml. This proves that hummingbirds like the most sugar.
Conclusion Hummingbird sugar mixes from the store are at 1/6 sugar and our neighbor mixes hers at 1/4 sugar for one cup of water. Our experiment showed that hummingbirds like more sugar than the recommended amount. They liked the one half cup sugar mix better than all the rest. My results support my hypothesis probably because hummingbirds consume lots of energy when they flap their wings so fast.
Sources of information Neighbor Sue uses 1/4 cup sugar 1 cup water. Store mix is 1/6 cup sugar 1cup water. Acknowledgements Lawrence put Hummingbird feeders up. Experiment by Korbyn and Izabella Powers