DIET Information

It is very interesting to watch the Hummingbird feed. They will eat up to 8 times per hour. However, each feeding session is only going to last from 30 seconds to 1 minute at a time. The majority of the diet for the Hummingbird is from sugar. They consume the nectar from the flowers. They also find sugar from tree sap.
In many locations there are species of Hummingbirds that consume pollen and small insects. They do prefer sugar though and that is what they will get when they can. However, they are opportunistic so they are going to dine one what they can in order to survive. Hummingbirds burn food so fast they often eat 1.5 to 3 times their body weight in food per day!
These are the type of food that hummingbird consumes:

• Insects: Insects are critical food sources for hummingbirds. Insects provide the fat, protein and salts the birds cannot derive from nectar, and these are crucial nutritional components, especially for rapidly growing hatchlings.

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• Sap: When nectar is scarce, hummingbirds will sip tree sap from wells drilled by woodpeckers. While the tree sap is not as sweet as floral nectar, it still provides an adequate source of sucrose for a hummingbird’s energy needs. Sap that has dripped down and hardened on the tree trunk cannot be drunk, but the birds may pick insects from the sticky residue.

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• Pollen: Hummingbirds do not directly consume pollen , but a great deal of pollen can be stuck to their tongues and bills when they sip nectar from flowers. Some of that pollen is ingested, and it can be a minor source of protein even though it wasn't directly eaten. Less than 10 percent of the ingested pollen is actually digested, however, which shows that while viable, this is not a common food source for hummingbirds.