Food
Different birds eat different foods, sometimes at different times of the year, depending on their nutritional needs and the availability of wild food. In general, though, birds eat seeds, berries and fruit, insects or nectar. You can attract various birds through providing a variety of seeds, usually based on sunflower or niger seed mixes. Nectar-eating birds such as hummingbirds or orioles are attracted to liquid nectar feeders. Some insect-eating birds such as woodpeckers are attracted to suet feeders.

You can encourage many more birds to your garden through planting certain kinds of trees, shrubs and flowers. Wild or nursery shrubs that have flowers and fruit are a good idea. The flowers attract nectar-loving birds as well as insects that then attract flycatching birds. If those plants then produce berries, the fruit eaters will visit your yard. Wild cherries, elderberries and raspberries are good examples. Any garden flower with a tube-shaped, preferably red, flower will attract hummingbirds. Try to choose plants that will flower and fruit consecutively to provided year-round food, especially in winter.

Cover or Shelter
Birds are much more willing to stay in your yard if there are lots of places where they can hide from their predators, shelter from the weather or just loaf around. Evergreens that don't lose their leaves in winter are used by many birds, especially cardinals. On hot days birds will seek the cool shelter of a deciduous tree. Many birds will be more attracted to feeders that have trees or shrubs nearby for escape in case of fright. Even an old pile of branches will do in a pinch. But be careful not to provide areas where predators such as cats can also hide!

Water
As with other living things, birds need a regular supply of water, both in summer and in winter. This can be supplied with any kind of bird bath or small pond in urban areas. Birds are very attracted to moving water, and many people have noticed their birds 'playing' in the spray of a lawn sprinkler, or a pond mister. It is easy to create the sound of moving water with a dripping garden hose over a few rocks into a small pond. You'll be amazed at the response from your feathered residents.

Nesting Areas
Birds are quiet and retiring around their nesting sites - even the normally raucous Blue Jays are silent and secretive around their nests. The are two ways of providing nesting habitat for birds. You can provide nesting boxes for those birds that next in cavities, platforms for Robins or Phoebes or refrain from cutting down that hollow tree. The birds will appreciate a box that is placed where there is a bit of cover. Another way is to leave some of your yard wild, with lots of long grass, a thicket of shrubs and untrimmed evergreens. The wilder, the better, as far as the birds are concerned!