What Do Baby Hummingbirds Eat? (Hint: Not Nectar)

Picture a hummingbird nest no wider than a walnut shell, tucked into the fork of a branch. Inside it, two chicks the size of bumblebees gape upward while their mother hovers in with dinner. If you imagine her offering them a sip of sweet nectar, you are picturing it wrong. Baby hummingbirds almost never drink nectar. What they get instead is a protein-packed slurry of tiny insects and spiders, pumped straight down their throats dozens of times a day.

It sounds rough, but it is exactly what a growing chick needs. Sugar water cannot build muscle, bone, or feathers, and a nestling that eats only nectar would simply stop growing. In this guide we reveal what baby hummingbirds really eat, how the mother delivers each meal with her remarkable bill, how often the chicks are fed, and what the day-by-day growth timeline looks like. We also cover the situation every bird lover dreads: finding a fallen nestling, and the exact steps that give it the best chance of survival.

The Short Answer: Insects and Spiders

Baby hummingbirds eat regurgitated insects and spiders. That is the whole menu. The mother catches gnats, fruit flies, aphids, tiny wasps, insect eggs, and small spiders, partly digests them, and pumps the resulting mush into her chicks. Nectar plays almost no part in the nestling diet.

This surprises most people because adult hummingbirds are famous for sipping nectar. But adults eat plenty of insects too. They hawk tiny insects from the air and pick spiders from webs every single day. For a growing chick, that invertebrate diet is not a side dish. It is the entire meal plan, and the National Wildlife Federation notes that hummingbirds rely on these invertebrates as food for their young.

The mother gathers this food herself, because she raises the brood entirely alone. The male takes no part in nesting or feeding once mating is over. Every gnat in every chick’s belly was caught, carried, and delivered by one hardworking female.

Why Nectar Alone Cannot Raise a Chick

Nectar is essentially sugar water. It delivers fast energy, which is perfect for fuelling the frantic hovering flight of an adult. But it contains almost no protein, no useful fats, and only traces of minerals. A nestling does not just need energy. It needs building materials.

Consider what a chick must construct in about three weeks: muscles, bones, organs, and a full coat of feathers made of keratin, a protein. None of that can be assembled from sugar. Only the amino acids in animal protein can do the job, which is why the insect diet is non-negotiable.

What a chick needs	Nectar	Tiny insects and spiders
Quick energy	Plenty, from fast sugars	Moderate, steady energy
Protein for muscle	Almost none	Rich in complete protein
Feather building blocks	Cannot supply keratin materials	Supplies amino acids for keratin
Fats for growth	None	Useful fats in every bite
Minerals for bone	Trace amounts only	Calcium, iron, and more

The takeaway is simple. Nectar is fuel for the mother’s engine while she hunts. Insects are the bricks and mortar of the chicks’ bodies. If you want the full picture of the adult menu, read our guide to what adult hummingbirds eat.

Dinner Delivery: How the Mother Feeds Her Chicks

The feeding method is one of the most remarkable sights in the bird world. The mother does not drop food into open beaks the way a robin does. She performs a deep, pumping regurgitation that looks almost startling the first time you see it. Here is how it works, step by step.

1. The hunt: the female sallies out and snatches gnats, aphids, and spiders from the air, leaves, and webs. She may gather dozens of tiny prey items in a single foraging trip.
2. The processing: the catch is held in her crop, where it softens into a digestible slurry. She is effectively pre-chewing for chicks that cannot chew at all.
3. The landing: she settles on the rim of the tiny nest. The chicks sense her arrival and stretch upward, gaping.
4. The deep delivery: she slides her long, slender bill deep into a chick’s throat, far past the gape, and pumps with rhythmic movements of her throat and body. The food travels straight to the chick’s crop.
5. The repeat: she withdraws, turns to the second chick, and does it all again. Then she is off hunting once more.

There is nothing gentle about the pumping action, and first-time watchers sometimes worry the mother is hurting her babies. She is not. The chick’s throat is built for exactly this, and the deep delivery keeps precious food from spilling out of the thimble-sized nest.

Between feeds, the mother also broods. In the first week the chicks cannot regulate their own body temperature, so she sits on them to keep them warm, leaving only for short hunting trips. As they feather up, she broods less and hunts more.

How Often Do Baby Hummingbirds Eat?

Constantly. In the first days after hatching, the mother feeds her chicks roughly every 15 to 30 minutes from dawn to dusk. That adds up to dozens of feeding visits in a single day, each one following a hunting trip. She is running a relentless shuttle service between the insect supply and the nest.

As the chicks grow, each meal gets bigger and the pace eases slightly, but the workload stays enormous. The mother must also feed herself through all of this. She drinks nectar from flowers and feeders for her own energy, because she cannot hunt insects for her chicks on an empty tank. Her own survival strategy is a story in itself, and it connects to how long hummingbirds live in the wild.

Feeding stops at nightfall. Hummingbirds do not see well in the dark, and the mother settles onto the nest to brood her chicks through the night instead. At first light, the shuttle service resumes.

Day by Day: The Nestling Growth Timeline

A ruby-throated hummingbird goes from a naked hatchling to a flying juvenile in about three weeks. It is one of the fastest childhoods in the bird world. Here is how it unfolds.

1. Day 0, hatching: the chick emerges blind and nearly naked, with only two tracts of grey down along its back and its eyes sealed shut. It weighs around half a gram, less than a paperclip, and cannot keep itself warm.
2. Days 1 to 3, doubling: fed every few minutes through the day, the chick roughly doubles in size by day three. The mother broods almost constantly between feeds.
3. Days 4 to 7, pin feathers: feather shafts called pin feathers push through the skin like tiny quills. The chick begins to regulate its body temperature, so the mother can take slightly longer hunting trips.
4. Days 8 to 10, eyes open: the eyes open, and the feathers start to unsheathe and unfurl. Growth stays explosive, with size doubling again around day eight.
5. Days 11 to 14, feathering up: soft juvenile plumage covers the body, the stubby bill lengthens, and the chicks start preening. They are recognisably tiny birds now, and the nest looks crowded.
6. Days 15 to 18, exercise: the chicks grip the nest rim, flap their wings vigorously, and practise balancing. These workouts build the flight muscles they will need within days.
7. Days 18 to 22, fledging: the young hummingbirds launch from the nest. Their first flights are short and clumsy, but they improve fast. The mother keeps feeding them for a week or more after they leave, until they can catch insects and find nectar on their own.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology records a nestling period of 18 to 22 days for the ruby-throated hummingbird, with incubation lasting 12 to 14 days before that. From the day the eggs are laid to the day the young fly, the whole production takes barely five weeks. You can explore the details on the Cornell Lab’s life history page for the ruby-throated hummingbird.

The Nest: A Stretchy Cradle Built for Growing Chicks

The nest deserves its own mention, because it is engineered around the chicks’ diet-fuelled growth. The female builds it alone over six to ten days, weaving plant down and bud scales into a cup and binding the whole thing with spider silk. The outside gets camouflaged with bits of lichen and moss.

The spider silk is the clever part. It makes the nest elastic, so the cup stretches as the chicks swell from half a gram to nearly adult weight. A rigid nest would split or tip them out. The finished cradle is only about an inch and a half across, often described as the size of a thimble or a walnut shell, yet it safely holds two rapidly growing chicks for three weeks.

Spider silk appears twice in this story: as the nest’s building material and as a food source, since the spiders themselves end up in the chicks’ diet. Few birds weave their grocery list into their architecture quite so literally.

Found a Baby Hummingbird? Here Is What to Do

Finding a fallen nestling is stressful, but your actions in the first minutes matter enormously. Hummingbird chicks are so small and fragile that well-meant mistakes can be fatal. Follow these steps in order.

1. Identify what you found: a nestling has few or no feathers and closed eyes, while a fledgling is fully feathered and hops or flutters. A fledgling on the ground is usually fine, because its mother is still feeding it nearby. Only the nestling needs intervention.
2. Return it to the nest if you can: if you can see the nest and reach it safely, gently place the chick back inside. This is the best possible outcome. Do not fear the old myth about human scent. It is the myth that touching a baby bird causes abandonment, and it is simply not true. Birds have a poor sense of smell, and the mother will carry on feeding as normal.
3. Build a substitute nest if the original is gone: line a small berry basket or similar container with tissue or paper towel, wire it into a shaded spot as close as possible to where the nest was, and place the chick inside. Watch quietly from a distance to see whether the mother returns.
4. Keep it warm, dark, and quiet: while you arrange help, place the chick in a small ventilated box lined with soft tissue in a warm, dark, quiet room. Warmth matters more than anything else right now.
5. Do not feed it anything: never offer sugar water, milk, bread, or any food, and never use an eyedropper. Liquid can enter the chick’s airways and cause fatal aspiration, and the wrong food can kill a nestling within hours. Feeding is a job for a trained rehabilitator with the right tools and formula.
6. Call a licensed wildlife rehabilitator immediately: hummingbirds need specialist care, and in many places it is illegal to keep a native bird without a permit. The NH Audubon’s guide to found baby birds explains exactly how to assess the situation and find qualified help fast.

Keep cats, dogs, and curious children away from the area while you wait. The mother may still be nearby, and a quiet space gives her the confidence to return to her chick.

Baby Hummingbird FAQs

Do baby hummingbirds drink nectar?

Almost never. The nestling diet is overwhelmingly tiny insects and spiders, regurgitated by the mother. A little nectar may occasionally be mixed into the slurry, but nectar alone contains no protein and would starve a growing chick. The mother drinks the nectar herself to fuel her hunting.

How long do baby hummingbirds stay in the nest?

For the ruby-throated hummingbird, the nestling period lasts 18 to 22 days. Add 12 to 14 days of incubation before hatching, and the whole nesting cycle runs about five weeks. The mother continues feeding the young for a week or more after they fledge.

What do baby hummingbirds eat in the first week?

The same insect diet they eat throughout the nestling period, just in smaller prey and smaller meals. From day one, the mother delivers regurgitated gnats, aphids, fruit flies, and spiders, feeding every 15 to 30 minutes during daylight.

Do hummingbirds abandon their babies if you touch them?

No. This is one of the most persistent myths in the bird world. Hummingbirds, like most birds, have a poor sense of smell and will not reject a chick because a person handled it. If you find a fallen nestling, returning it to the nest is the kindest and most effective thing you can do.

Can I feed a baby hummingbird sugar water?

No, never attempt it. An eyedropper can send liquid into the chick’s airways, causing fatal aspiration, and homemade mixtures lack the protein a nestling needs. Keep the chick warm and contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, who has the specialist formula and feeding tools.

How fast do baby hummingbirds grow?

Astonishingly fast. A ruby-throated chick roughly doubles in size by day three, doubles again by day five, and again around day eight. It goes from a half-gram hatchling to a fully feathered fledgling in about three weeks, one of the quickest childhoods of any bird.

Conclusion

Baby hummingbirds eat insects and spiders, not nectar, and that single fact reshapes everything we assume about these famous nectar sippers. The mother catches the tiniest prey imaginable, softens it in her crop, and pumps it deep into each chick’s throat dozens of times a day. It is demanding, unglamorous work, and she does it entirely alone, from building the silk-bound nest to the final post-fledging feeds.

The protein in that insect diet is what makes the miracle possible: a half-gram hatchling doubling and redoubling until, three weeks later, it lifts off the nest rim on its own wings. Nectar keeps the mother’s engine running, but insects build the babies. So the next time you watch a hummingbird hovering at your feeder, remember the hidden half of its life: the tiny hunter snatching gnats from the air to feed chicks you will probably never see. And if you ever find one of those chicks on the ground, you now know exactly what to do, and just as importantly, what never to do.