And, there are books dedicated to bird counts made in certain geographic areas, including counts at backyard feeders. Mix one part each of peanut butter, flour and vegetable shortening with four parts corn meal. Add some raisins and sunflower seeds and pack the mixture into a suet holder . Flickers, nuthatches and other birds that spend the summer feeding on insects will love it . Keep them indoors in the winter.
Birds get slower when they're cold and it's easy for a cat to nab one.
Hang your suet feeder bottom side up. That will discourage the non-native starlings and English house sparrows, but not the more desirable nuthatches, woodpeckers and chickadees which can cling upside down to feed . Discourage squirrels by trapping and removing them, or by providing ear corn feeders away from the birdfeeders. Try to plan how much bird-feed you'll need, don't summer it over .