Make sure your feeders are clean and pest free. Remember that hummingbirds enjoy a variety of plants so plant more than just cleome. Putting your feeder up late does not discourage them. They are very determined birds and won't give up to find food.

I've switched from keeping feeders to planting habitat gardens and it's much more enjoyable to watch them fly from garden to garden.

My neighbor was faithful with putting up feeders and keeping them maintained, but has since moved away. She was so excited to attract them and didn't know that they already came here yearly to my flowers.

My attempts with feeders over the years have been inconsistent, so it's not feeders, but flowers attracting them. It all started when we saw them at the native flowering plants like Indian plum, bleeding heart, fringecup, etc. Then my toddler daughter & I planted columbine and others from a seed assortment. Now 20 years later, she's grown and gardening at her place and I'm still planting hummingbird plants with them coming back for more year after year.

I think the hummers are happier and I am, too because a garden is infinitely more interesting than even my most beautifully painted glass feeder.

I am having the same experience. We had a few migrators in May. Now one will stop by for a drink and be gone within a day or two. Last year they would sit in the trees or shrubs to guard the feeders. This year we have had very few, none that really stay....wondering where they are in southwest VA.

lovetogrow

Keep putting those feeders out and keep them clean and fresh. It is not peak season yet but hummers will scout over a wide area looking for feeding chances and they will visit them all. It does help to have the right kind of hummer plants they will feed from. Many can be found at most nurseries. Salvia guaranitica black and blue, coccinea lady in red, coral nymph, summer jewel, cuphea david verity and cuphea schumannii are all good. Cardinal flower is another good one as a late season bloomer which likes sun and water.

Thanks Steve. I need to get plants. A hummer came today but didn't sit to feed. It's like they are just grazing and not really staying around. Just happy to see one, even if it is only occasionally. SS

Supposedly they are very territorial.

When they first migrate, they will feed from any feeder that they can find. However once they establish their territories, the males will become very aggressive during mating season and will chase away the others.

I used to have over half a dozen at the same feeder about 2 months ago, and then they started fighting more and more often with each other, eventually resulting in lesser numbers.

Now I consider myself lucky if I see one or two a day but when they do arrive, they barely stay for more than a couple of seconds and immediately take off whereas I had some of them literally nest on the thing and spend almost the whole day perched on the wire above the feeder.

Now, one of them actually comes to the window almost each time, stares at me for a couple of seconds and then takes off on a hurry. In June, I would stand outside refilling the feeders and have them stay 2-3 feet away from me for minutes, not bothered by me or anything else.

I also have a regular bird feeder about 4 feet away from the hummer feeder, and recently I have had about a dozen Blue Jays claim that feeder as their own. They are extremely loud birds (crows, magpies and jays are all in the same family), and they may also be scaring the others away when they show up intermittently throughout the day, accompanied with real loud noise.

It is almost time for the hummers to migrate, so I won't bother changing anything this year but next year, I will add more hummer feeders and a large feeder for the Jays about 50 feet away from the other two, further away into the yard.