The dried seed heads of cosmos are also loved by goldfinches. Good food plants have small succulent leaves or blossoms, an abundance of seeds or fruit and attract an array of insects. Chickweed, dandelions and goldenrod are excellent. Watch what the birds are eating or nesting in, and allow those plants to flourish. Hummingbirds like small flying insects and nectar from lupines, larkspur, columbine, jasmine, monkey flower, pentstemons, salivas, trumpet vine, acacia, aloe, manzanita, ceanothus and toyon.
Bird baths are even better if they have a spray of some kind.
Make sure the water is fresh and clean. Place them near protective shrubbery, trees, shrubs and grasses. Small birds don't like to fly through open spaces where they're exposed to predators. That goes for your compost, too. This material came from the Point Reyes Bird Observatory and WildCare, Terwilliger Nature Education and Wildlife Rehabilitation Center which has taken over the old California Wildlife Center at 76 Albert Park Lane, San Rafael when they moved to bigger quarters.