It may seem premature to be thinking about spring planting already, but many plant catalogs have already begun arriving, advertising their spring offerings months before the ground thaws. And you can take advantage of these early mailings to begin researching options for next year's wildlife garden now. Well, you could toss the catalog into the air and then pick something from whatever page is open when it hits the ground, but let me suggest a bit more scientific approach. Try selecting relatives of those plants that attracted wildlife to your backyard in 1996.
Related plants tend to have similar characteristics.
For example, goldfinches like the seeds of cosmos, both Cosmos bipinnatus and Cosmos sulphureus. But there are limiting factors. I don't have a greenhouse, so all large, long-lived tropical plant species are automatically eliminated from my selection process. Plants that I grow must also thrive on near neglect, because I seldom water my gardens. And fertilizing to me simply means spreading compost on my basically clay soil.