Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: Probably a dumb question, 0 by MichaelZ

MichaelZ wrote:
I enjoy feeding the hummers. I was cleaning all my bird feeders last week cuz they needed it. I hung them back up and the hummers seemed very happy with their's, and the other birds are slowly coming back cuz there is a lot of food for them in the wild right now. But I digress. I use what seems to be the most common hummingbird feeder. I've had it for years and I don't want to even think about the pounds of sugar I've poured into it. Even at 1/3 cup per cup of water. Still I digress. So, I was cleaning the kitchen and there was this red plastic stick hiding behind some dirty dishes. Sure enough it was not in the hummingbird feeder.

So, finally here is my probably dumb question. What is the purpose of the plastic red stick in the probably most common hummingbird feeder? Curious minds want to know.