Stan, My realistic flower hummingbird feeders are even smaller in capacity than yours. They are made with 50ml liquor bottles, which hold only 1.77 ounces. I fill them up entirely, and at the height of the season, put up two or three at a time. It usually takes at least a day and a half for them to drink all of the sugar water, or, at most, 2-3 days. This suits me fine because I believe in cleaning them frequently. I don't like to take any chances with the health of "my" birds, and having smaller feeders also leads to less waste of solution. I know I get at least 4 birds, and maybe a few more, but it's hard to say for certain. They're hard to tell apart and who can say for sure if I'm seeing the same male at each visit, or two different ones. At very least I have had one adult male, one adult female, and then a couple of babies by midsummer. If there are a few more, it's hard to say. I am gradually expanding our garden. Last year I had Bleeding Hearts, native red Columbine, Agastache, some purple hybrid Lobelias, Lobelia cardinalis, Zinnias, and Salvia coccinea. In spite of the nice flowers, and contrary to the experience of some people on this forum, my adult birds were feeder junkies. I had trouble getting the adults to use flowers--even highly attractive ones like Monarda didyma, Agastache, and Salvia coccinea. The babies were all over my flowers last summer, but the adults showed less interest in the real flowers than in the feeders. I don't know the reason, other than that I think it takes less energy to visit feeders, especially when your garden is relatively small, like mine, and you don't have huge stands of flowers. In most cases, I only had about 3-6 specimens of each plant. Maybe they need large massings of flowers, like in your formerly huge hummer garden. Or, maybe I can flatter myself to think that they appreciate the realism of my feeders! One of these years I'll invest in a digital camera. I understand, though, that some models have a significant delay in snapping the picture. I imagine you must have the kind that takes instantaneous images. I don't think wildlife photography would be possible without instant results. I wonder why they make them that way? It must be a memory thing or some design constraint. Who in their right mind would want a camera to have a lag in the shutter?

Hi Lary and Deb! Welcome to the group of hummer addicts! LOL A good first step might be to go through this thread to get some ideas of plants that are natural hummer attractants. My very first was attracted to one of my then-reblooming weigelas and to my goldflame honeysuckle - way before I had any feeder... and in fact, my honeysuckle is just barely starting a rebloom cycle and my little regular couldn't wait to start buzzing around it and getting the nectar from it. I knew there was a flower there ready to open and I soon as I saw her this morning over there, I wondered if the flower was open and sure enough, it has started to open and she was right on it! Once they find your spot and you have some plants that they like, you may find them moving between the feeder and the plants... although some ignore feeders and just do plants while others may ignore some of the plants and hang out at the feeder. But in any case, they are fun to watch... like big bees!

Thanks everyone. I'm in Texas, so it is probably a black-chinned. I was thrown by the pink belly of what I believe is the male that visits the feeder. E-Nature is a great site.

Tom, the garden isn't looking too good. Even though I covered my Pipevine, the leaves appear to be burnt to a crisp. Down lower I do see some green leaves and I am hoping the roots were protected enough. I didn't lose any last year but I also had more mulch around the bases than this year. My tall red pentas are goners again. I brought in some of my Salvias since the hummers do use them. Cape Honeysuckle looks damaged but not dead - yet. I may have 1 or 2 male Rubies - the other morning I was seeing one about every 8 minutes. Makes me think its more than one. The Rufous was here today. If you go to Florida Gardening Forum I posted some pics from Tues. morning. Various birds that came to feed and there is a pic of the Rufous. The posting title is Busy Morning in My Yard. Did you get my email that I forwarded from Doreen?