Anyone can add an artisan’s touch to their landscape with this easy to make project… plus you get hummingbirds! You will need only 3 materials and some basic tools for the project (you will likely already have the tools around the house).
If you have your own colored or vintage wine bottles you would like to use (maybe from a memorable occasion that you would like to re-purpose) then that’s great, I’ll also show you how best to clean them for hummingbirds so that they won’t get “buzzed”… yes, hummingbird pun intended.
Wine bottles can also be sourced on Amazon, I recommend a nice bright color like red which hummingbirds are attracted to. Ask restaurants if they have any empty vintage or artisan bottles (they’re free where you can find them).
Also, stores with a housewares department will stock nice high-end looking olive oil dispensers. You may also look for liquor or liqueur bottles with similar sized openings. Adapter tubes should work just as well with these kinds of bottles as they do with wine bottles. I’ll leave links to everything I mention and and a helpful video at the bottom of this article.
Materials You Will Need:
- An empty and cleaned used or new wine bottle(s)
- Copper (recommended), aluminum, or galvanized steel wire thin enough to bend with pliers but strong enough to hold a full bottle at the same time. (If uncertain, go with a thicker gauge wire)
- A hummingbird feeder adapter tube made for wine bottles
- Hummingbird ‘friendly’ nectar, see info-graphic below
Adapter Tubes
These are made to fit wine bottle openings just like a cork but with a tube and a stopper on the end that has a small hole in it. They are readily available on sites like Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy and usually sold inexpensively as a pack of 5-10 adapters.
What Kind Of Wire Should I Use?
Metal wire for crafts are available in many colors and finishes. I’ve seen everything used to wrap around the bottles including wire mesh. When in doubt, copper is always a good choice. Copper is both strong an malleable at the same time, so you can choose a thicker gauge and it will be easy to bend and work with.
These will also work well outdoors:
- Aluminum– Annealed aluminum wire is also soft and easy to work with and has a high resistance to corrosion.
- Brass– Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. It is harder than copper and when polished has a color similar to gold.
- Black annealed steel– This wire is also easy to work with, but can rust over time. To prevent rust, apply a clear outdoor sealant.
- Galvanized wire– galvanized steel wire is used extensively for garden wire and steel fencing because of it’s durability. This is due to a corrosion-resistant zinc plating.
Patina finishes: If you expose copper, steel or brass to the elements for long enough, they will oxidize or patinate. Steel will rust, brass will tarnish to a soft brown, and copper will turn blue or green. Patina finishers allow you to speed up this process to an hour or two.
Most wire can be painted with the exception of zinc-plated galvanized. Apply spray in several thin coats, allowing each coat to dry in between applications.
Tools Needed:
- Household pliers
- Straight-nose pliers
- A hand-held pair of vise grips would also be helpful
Instructions:
First, wrap the copper wire around the neck of the bottle at least 3 times. Then, holding the neck with the wire wrapped around it, start to wrap the wire down the rest of the bottle in a spiral fashion, making enough spiral rings around the bottle to firmly hold it. You can use some temporary electrical tape to hold the wire to the bottle for the next step. Now all there is to do is to make a hook at the bottle’s “bottom end”, which will be at the top when you fill and turn the bottle upside-down.
You can place the bottle anywhere you can hang a plant… along a fence (with an extension bracket or hanger), an overhang, trellis, under an arbor, etc.
Before filling your bottle with nectar clean the inside of the bottle thoroughly (see cleaning below). Be sure to fill the bottle all the way to the top rim of the bottle. Push the tube and adapter into the bottle in a twisting motion. Some nectar will overflow and come out of the tube but this will keep air out of the adapter and tube, then your feeder is ready to go!
Cleaning The Bottles And Maintenance
Hummingbird feeders need to be cleaned out once a week to prevent mold. This is especially true in sunny warm weather.
Feeders made of glass and plastic should be cleaned with a vinegar solution. Use a bottle brush to clean debris and rinse with warm water.
Check your feeder now and then for ants. If you see any, place some vaseline on the hook above the bottle. Ants can’t get past it. Re-apply the vaseline after a hard rain.
Use garden S-hooks made for hanging baskets to hang your feeders instead of using wire all the way up to the point where you hook the bottle onto something. This way the bottle can blow in the breeze with minimal bending of the wire, eliminating weak points where it could eventually break.
How To Fix Leakage Problems
If you’re seeing nectar leaking from your new feeder, it could simply be an issue of improperly filling the bottle. Below I posted a great video explaining how to avoid this problem.
Thanks and credit go to “The Chilly Dog” channel on YouTube for that great advice!
Another way to avoid leakage is to use a different type of adapter. Tray-type adapters are sold online that are made to fit wine bottle hummingbird feeders. They look like traditional bird feeder adapters that use seed except these are made just for hummingbird nectar and include small “reservoirs” that re-fill themselves after a hummingbird drinks from one.
Resources for Materials:
Empty wine bottles can be found at restaurants and on Amazon. Also, artisan olive oil dispenser bottles from stores usually work, make sure the stopper/opening on the bottle is about the same size as a wine bottle;
Feeder adapters with tubes are listed on Amazon.com and on Ebay.com, I found some with flowers on the end of the tubes on Etsy.com;
Copper wire can be sourced at local hardware stores and craft stores;
Garden S-hooks are sold at any good hardware or garden center;
Finished wine bottle hummingbird feeders you can buy already made for you are mostly on Etsy.com. I also found some good ones on Amazon.
For even more ideas how to use old wine bottles visit our Pinterest board full of images on this subject.
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