It's best to keep feeders filled with only one type of seed, to avoid waste. Many of the seeds found in birdseed mixes are not especially popular, and visiting birds will often drop or kick out seeds just to get to their favorite kind. That favorite, according to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, is the black-oil sunflower seed, which is preferred by the widest variety of bird species, from chickadees to cardinals. Your wintertime bird-feeding station might also include suet for woodpeckers, titmice, nuthatches, and chickadees. In California and parts of the South, fill hummingbird feeders with one part sugar to four parts water.
Oranges top the list for orioles.
To make a fruit feeder, drive several long nails through a board and attach it to a feeding platform. Then stick the fruit on the nails like shish kebab. Ready-made fruit feeders are also available at many bird stores. And try setting out houses for mason bees, leaf-cutter bees, and sweat bees. If you grow any fruit, you'll want to increase your own population of mason bees, which are very effective fruit pollinators.