Generally, once they find you, they tend to come more and more steadily as you build a reliable history of feeding and as you build your garden to accomodate them. At least that's what I think.

Here is a link that might be useful: gregscott.com (bird photos, particularly hummers)

Hawkeye-- I think its sorta like starting a bussiness, you have to build your clientel. Ive lived here 4yrs and I started with 1 feeder and no flowers and not many hummers last year I ended up with 4 feeders overal and no flowers at migration time maybe 10-12 hummers. This year I added a lot of hummer flowers for my small yard and 10 feeders overall and several mornings since migration has started Ive had in the area of 20 hummers at the peak or rush hour., but Im talking early morning. You build it and they will come.

i live in phila i have 1 hummer that has just began to stop by hope when i plant my garden with more plants for these cuties i will see more than 1 in the spring!!

It seems to me I get the same hummers for several years (which I assume is about their lifetime in favorable areas). So, yeah, I think they return to good feeding/breeding areas.

It has been documented that hummers somehow remember the location of flower patches they feed in while migrating - so I would assume that goes for our "artificial flowers" . Don't stop with feeders - find out which nectar flowers do well in your area and plant them. It'll give the hummers a fiood option if your out of town and the feeder goes dry , PLUS they need the tiny insects in and around the flowers as their protein source. So a pesticide-free hunting ground for bugs and flowers will keep them coming back.

This is all true what has been said in previous posts , but here is another thought. Besides the ones that may reside at your place all summer, if you have a hummer garden and the migrators happen to stop at your place on their way south seeing the fine feeding ground that they either missed or wasnt there when they passed thru, you better believe they will stop there next spring. Its an instinctive thing all nature seems to possess.

Yes they will return.. If you have resident hummingbirds that are born and bred in your area that is where they will come back to nest next year. Just be sure to find out what hummingbird plants that will grow in your area and plant those for food.

I have found that hummingbirds come back for the same feeders and plants. They like for them to be just where they left them the season before.

Lucygreenthumb makes a good point. Hummers are attracted to our artificial feeders, but there is more to their diet than just dissolved refined white sugar. Aside from the tiny insects they seem to eat (and I've never quite understood how they "eat" them), I suspect that real plants must provide some trace minerals lacking in our pure sugar water.

So planting flowers that they can feed from is important, too, and I encourage everyone to have a butterfly bush, trumpet vine, cardinal flower, lobelia, monarda, etc. Anyone has room for a couple hummer-friendly plants. Sometimes, I see the hummers around my butterfly bushes so much, I'm not sure if I really have to feed them myself (but I do to see them mose closely). And maybe I have more hummers by putting out the feeders.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hummer Plants