Take a run through my flickr album, most of the shots have EXIF enabled.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/zack3g/albums/72157656840101364

The best thing that will help you is having one or more flashes to assist you.

You can see this in the above linked album, comparing the uppermost images to the lower ones.

Exposure is the least important part of the equation to consider though. Shooting raw, this can often be adjusted in post.

The stuff you really need to concentrate on is what cannot be fixed in post, namely focus and composition (obstructions and the like) because there's not much to be done for these after the shot's been taken.

You can crop and do minor edits to kinda shift the composition around but if there's a big fuck ugly feeder taking up most of the frame, there's not really much to be done about that. Try to avoid this. Also if your background sucks, there's not much you can do about that either.

As to the focus...this is the #1 priority. Make sure your camera's focus is accurate, and make sure you're doing your part to get absolute focus on your subject.

Let the shutter speed and the flash freeze the wings for you (or not, depending on the look you're going for) and the exposure can kinda come after. Remember Nikon sensors are rather ISO invariant so if you're a bit over or under on the exposure (often up to 5 stops or so) you can correct it in post...if you're shooting raw.

A few examples to kinda drive some of these points home:

#1 - focus

DSC_1146 by Zack, on Flickr

The above image would have been pretty awesome if it wasn't out of focus. This particular example was a mixed hardware and software problem, as I was never really able to dial in the 70-200 + 2x to get genuinely sharp images. Also, I just plain didn't do a good enough job on my end of the shooting.

Compare the above to this

DSC_7032 by Zack, on Flickr

Much nicer just because the focus is there and you can count the feathers. The background is a bit less interesting here though.

2: composition

There are good ways and bad ways to feature the bird feeder in an image. It's often best to avoid the feeder completely if possible but sometimes it provides relevant context to the image.

Bad example:

DSC_1474 by Zack, on Flickr

Not quite so bad:

DSC_1760 by Zack, on Flickr

This one's pretty decent:

DSC_6632 by Zack, on Flickr

point #3 - try to catch the bird doing something interesting. (if you're documenting the bird, like I was doing with the rufous this is less important)

DSC_6645 by Zack, on Flickr

Focus leaves a bit to be desired (again, that 70-200+2x thing) but how often do you see this?

Point #4 - ignore everything I've just said if it works for the image.

DSC_3105-Edit by Zack, on Flickr

You can work around the feeder without much difficulty.

You can use your lens and body position to eliminate or minimize the appearance of the feeder.

You can also set up a few perching sticks nearby and the birds *will* use them. People don't often see hummingbirds sitting down, because they don't give them a safe place to sit. They spend a good part of their day sitting trying to conserve energy.