For those of you who will be putting up hummingbird feeders this year, I came across some research about the common 4:1 ratio. While there is nothing wrong with this ratio. A ratio with less sugar may be optimal for observation of hummingbirds. The research indicated that feeders that had less sugar in the mixture forced the hummingbirds to frequent more often so they got their required energy. So, obviously feeders with higher sugar concentrations were not visited as often because they got more out of each feeding therefore requiring less visits. It seems as if they know their bodies will enough that we cannot outsmart them. Just thought I would share this info. You might do your own experiment and see which ratio is best for seeing more visitors.