Red Food Coloring is Bad for Hummingbirds. (1 Viewer)

[carjug]

I was at Wal*Mart getting a couple of cakes of suet, when I saw a woman pick up a little $3.50 bottle of red hummingbird nectar. "Nuh-uh", I said, "use plain sugar water". She started to look at me like I was nuts, and to tell me she knew her own business, when the magic words left my mouth.

"The red food coloring is bad for the birds."

I went on to explain that plain table sugar in a 1 to 4 cut with water is the prefered solution for feeders. She left the silly little bottle on the shelf.

It ain't often, but you get to win sometimes!

 

[KC Foggin]

Almost weekly I explain this to someone in my local hardware store when I am picking up seed. Good thing the owner knows me well and doesn't complain when I do this.

 

[PumaMan]

Yes. Those bottles of prepared hummingbird nectar are, at best, a waste of money. At worst, they are bad for the hummingbirds. I've even read where people have used artificial sweetener instead of sugar.

 

[dantheman]

I'd imagine so. I went to a party once where you had to take a bottle of red wine or something with you. I wasn't drinking alcohol at the time, so I decided to take some lemonade and put lots of red food colouring in it until it was red - I ended up feeling a lot worse than if I'd drunk red wine!

Doh!

 

[fugl]

The red coloring useless, agreed, but is there any evidence that it's actually bad for the hummers?

 

[PumaMan]

The red coloring useless, agreed, but is there any evidence that it's actually bad for the hummers?

This isn't evidence but snopes declares it undetermined:

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/reddye.asp

 

[fugl]

This isn't evidence but snopes declares it undetermined:

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/reddye.asp

Interesting link, thanks. I didn’t realize the “red coloring is bad for hummingbirds” meme was so widespread. It seems we’re in in pure urban myth country here, as I suspected.

 

[PumaMan]

It seems we’re in in pure urban myth country here, as I suspected.

I don't think "undetermined" implies "pure urban myth". Chemicals that are used to color food haven't had the best rep over the years. I think it needs more study but the problem will be funding--who is going to pay for a hummingbird nectar study?

And after all, it was "undetermined" 60 years ago that cigarette smoking was bad for your health.

The way I look at it is: If the red coloring is useless and it is "undetermined" if it causes health problems in hummingbirds, I'm not using it.

 

[dantheman]

Having been a guinea pig re red food colouring as per post above, I can say that, apart from Coffee (allergic to that), it gave me the most queasy weird ill feeling ever from food. Not necessarily recommending we start trials on people, but it could be interesting imo....

 

[humminbird]

I don't think "undetermined" implies "pure urban myth". Chemicals that are used to color food haven't had the best rep over the years. I think it needs more study but the problem will be funding--who is going to pay for a hummingbird nectar study?

And after all, it was "undetermined" 60 years ago that cigarette smoking was bad for your health.

The way I look at it is: If the red coloring is useless and it is "undetermined" if it causes health problems in hummingbirds, I'm not using it.

I would suggest checking out http://www.hummingbirds.net/dye.html. While there is no evidence at all that red dye is harmful to birds, the more important point is that there is NO EVIDENCE RED DYE IS SAFE FOR BIRDS - but the corporates continue to sell it.

 

[PumaMan]

I would suggest checking out http://www.hummingbirds.net/dye.html. While there is no evidence at all that red dye is harmful to birds, the more important point is that there is NO EVIDENCE RED DYE IS SAFE FOR BIRDS - but the corporates continue to sell it.

No need. You're preaching to the choir here. White sugar and water is the best and cheapest way to go.

 

[fugl]

I don't think "undetermined" implies "pure urban myth". Chemicals that are used to color food haven't had the best rep over the years. I think it needs more study but the problem will be funding--who is going to pay for a hummingbird nectar study?

And after all, it was "undetermined" 60 years ago that cigarette smoking was bad for your health.

The way I look at it is: If the red coloring is useless and it is "undetermined" if it causes health problems in hummingbirds, I'm not using it.

I don’t use the commercial hummingbird mixes either, not because I think the red colorant is bad for the birds but because I don’t like being conned. Plain home-brewed sugar/water mixtures are not only as effective in attracting hummers as the commercial nectars, but are a lot cheaper as well.

Re urban myths—these are stories, often pointing to something dangerous or otherwise harmful or bizarre, circulated informally (email, websites, word-of-mouth) with only anecdotal evidence to back them up (if any evidence at all). The assertion—encountered all sorts of places & never accompanied by solid evidence--that the red food coloring in commercial hummingbird mixes is bad for hummers strikes me as an absolutely typical specimen of the genre.

The tobacco analogy is ridiculous, by the way. The fact that a practice or substance formerly regarded as harmless turns out to be dangerous doesn’t imply anything with respect to unrelated practices & substances. After all, lots of things were “not known” to cause cancer 60 years ago, & this remains true of most things today. For example the plastic (generally colored red by the way) used in many hummingbird feeders—is that known for sure not to cause harm?

 

[PumaMan]

I'll continue to err on the side of caution. If there's a chance of a food coloring being harmful, I won't use it. Take a look at the history of food colorings--the formulas have been changed many times over the years to more benign compounds. And you may be right and the the red dye may be harmless--for people--but most people don't drink their body weight in fluids each day, day after day, year after year.

 

[MLoyko]

I've never personally bought the dyed stuff but have used it because it was given to me free. I have one feeder with the dyed nectar in it and one feeder with the homemade sugar water in it. Not once have I seen a hummer drink from the red feeder and only have I seen them drink from the clear feeders.

 

[pshute]

Can someone please tell me why commercial hummingbird "nectar" is coloured red? Does the red attract the birds, or is it just to make it look attractive to buyers?

And is cane sugar ok for them? While Australian honeyeaters like it, apparently it's not very nutritious for them.

 

[MLoyko]

Can someone please tell me why commercial hummingbird "nectar" is coloured red? Does the red attract the birds, or is it just to make it look attractive to buyers?

And is cane sugar ok for them? While Australian honeyeaters like it, apparently it's not very nutritious for them.

I think it is supposed to attract them in but it really isn't needed, there is enough red on most feeders to bring them in anyways

 

[fugl]

I've never personally bought the dyed stuff but have used it because it was given to me free. I have one feeder with the dyed nectar in it and one feeder with the homemade sugar water in it. Not once have I seen a hummer drink from the red feeder and only have I seen them drink from the clear feeders.

Interesting. I used the commercial red nectar in the past, before I wised up to it, but recently have only used the clear homebrew. I didn’t keep systematic notes, but my impression was that the 2 kinds of nectar were equally popular with the hummers. “Real” nectar from flowers of course is clear not red, the hummer presumably being attracted by the flower color (which it can see) rather than by that of the nectar (which it can’t).

 

[humminbird]

No need. You're preaching to the choir here. White sugar and water is the best and cheapest way to go.

I think we need to be very careful here. Reading the first few posts, it is clear that members of the board are telling people the red color IS bad for the birds. That is simply unproven and if asked to prove it you are going to look foolish. Check out http://www.rubythroat.org/FeedingHintsMain.html
or other pages on that same site. The two sites I have posted are some of the most science based sites about hummingbirds I have been able to find. If that is insufficient I suggest posing the question to Tzunun on this board. I am confident she too will tell you it is unproven.

I would suggest that we take Bill's aproach at Rubythroat.org and say it is unnecessary. I might add that (because it is an additive) it is possibly, or even probably, harmful, but I would avoid saying it IS harmful. You simply provide ammunition for folks like the Perky Pet public relations people.

 

[PumaMan]

I think we need to be very careful here. Reading the first few posts, it is clear that members of the board are telling people the red color IS bad for the birds. That is simply unproven and if asked to prove it you are going to look foolish.

Please don't use me as an example. I just stated what I do. Others can do whatever they please--it's not in me to proselytize.

 

[seaspirit]

Can someone please tell me why commercial hummingbird "nectar" is coloured red? Does the red attract the birds, or is it just to make it look attractive to buyers?

And is cane sugar ok for them? While Australian honeyeaters like it, apparently it's not very nutritious for them.

The birds -hummers at least- do not care what colour the "nectar" is. Even the colour of flowers and feeders is secondary, as the birds learn where they find reward and develop temporary preferences for the related colours. Fact is that a number of ornithophilic plants show red flowers, other don't. I have seen local hummers prefer blooming blue thistles amidst a bed of red hummingbird flowers , presumably the nectar yield there was higher at the time.

Regular sugar (cane sugar?) is OK for hummers, as their digestive system is adjusted to it. One of the frist steps is to break the molecules down into monomeres before metabolic utilization. Nectar -just as sugar sirup- offers little more than energy, its essentially a ~20% sugar solution in water. Vitamines, fat, protein are next to nill and hummers and other nectar eaters will have to get those from other foof sources (insects!). Other than humans most animals know how importent a balanced diet it and feed accordingly.
On the contrary, other sugars (or sweetners) may harm the birds as they may not be digestibale to provide energy. However, more likely hummers will smell that something isn't right and stay away from the mix.

So, regular household sugar is the sugar of choice to prepare hummer nectar. Just sugar and (good, clean) water is all that should go in the mix, vitamins and other supplements are not required. At best they are useless, at worse they may do harm.

Ulli