Hummingbird Sugar-to-Water Ratio (Printable Chart)

The hummingbird sugar-to-water ratio is always 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. That is the answer, whether you are filling a 6-ounce window feeder or refilling three 32-ounce reservoirs in July. What changes with feeder size is not the ratio — it is how much of each ingredient you need to end up with the right total volume.

This guide gives you a single lookup chart in cups, milliliters, and grams, plus a quick refill calculator so you can plan a week of nectar without doing math over the sink. If you want the reasoning behind why the ratio is 4:1, our nectar ratio explainer covers that.

The master chart

Every row makes a batch at the 4:1 ratio. Volumes are given as the final nectar volume after the sugar dissolves — sugar takes up almost no extra volume once dissolved in warm water, so “1 cup water + 1/4 cup sugar” produces almost exactly 1 cup of finished nectar.

Finished nectar	Water (cups)	Sugar (cups)	Sugar (grams)	Fills
1 cup / 240 ml	1	1/4	50 g	Small window feeder
2 cups / 475 ml	2	1/2	100 g	Standard 12–16 oz feeder
3 cups / 710 ml	3	3/4	150 g	Large 24 oz feeder
4 cups / 950 ml	4	1	200 g	Two standard feeders, or a 32 oz
6 cups / 1.4 L	6	1 1/2	300 g	Three feeders, or a week of summer refills
8 cups / 1.9 L	8	2	400 g	Peak-summer, multi-feeder yard

Water and sugar are the only ingredients. No red dye, no honey, no unrefined sugar — see our nectar recipe guide for the “what to never use” list and the reasons behind each.

Metric-only version

If you cook in grams, this is the same chart in a cleaner unit:

Water (ml)	Sugar (g)	Finished nectar
240 ml	50 g	~ 1 cup
500 ml	105 g	~ 2 cups
1000 ml	210 g	~ 4 cups
2000 ml	420 g	~ 8 cups

If you use a kitchen scale, weigh both the water and the sugar. Volume measurements for sugar can drift 10 percent based on how firmly the cup is packed; grams do not lie.

How much nectar you actually need per week

The chart above tells you how to make a batch. The next question is how many batches you need to make. That depends on two things: how many feeders you run, and how often you have to change the nectar.

Change frequency by outdoor temperature:

• Below 60°F / 16°C — change every 6–7 days
• 60–70°F / 16–21°C — every 5–6 days
• 70–80°F / 21–27°C — every 3–4 days
• 80–90°F / 27–32°C — every 2 days
• Above 90°F / 32°C — daily

Assume you run one standard feeder with a 12-ounce reservoir, and typical summer temperatures are 75°F. That means you refill every 4 days — so about 2 refills per week, or 24 ounces of nectar. Round up: make 3 cups (24 oz) of nectar per week and any extra keeps in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Three feeders in peak summer heat is closer to 8 cups a week — one full jug of nectar in the fridge is the right batch size for that setup.

The one-page printable

We recommend printing this page’s chart and taping it inside a kitchen cabinet near where you keep the sugar. The 4:1 ratio does not change, so once the chart is up you never have to Google it again.

(A downloadable one-page PDF version of the chart is on our to-do list — check back soon, or copy the master table above into a note on your phone in the meantime.)

Common measurement mistakes

Three mistakes come up often enough to name:

1. Weighing the sugar instead of measuring by volume — but using the water volume from the chart. Sugar and water do not weigh the same per cup. Pick either the volume column or the gram column and stay in that unit; do not mix.
2. Scooping sugar with a wet cup. Compacts the sugar and adds a hidden 10–15% to the amount you thought you were adding. Rinse and dry the measure between batches, or scoop water first.
3. “Just eyeballing” the ratio when refilling directly into the feeder. Concentrations drift over a season, always upward. If you find yourself doing this on a hot week, make one bigger batch in a jug and refill from the jug instead.

Related guides

• Full nectar recipe: step-by-step method
• Why the ratio is 4:1 (the reasoning)