Yes, it's reasonable that house finches and pine siskins are around your area, and that they spend the winter. My sister has had house finches at their place in the Saskatoon area, year-round, for the last 15(?) years, likely more (and breeding records a few years after they started showing up). For the first time, we've had house finches here for a sustained period and they nested successfully in our neighborhood - will have to keep an eye out to see if they winter. Regardless of the mixed opinions the birding world has of their spread, it sure is nice to have colorful birds around that sing year-round, not just in the courting season.

Pine siskins kind of come and go - they are around all summer and most winters here, but we didn't notice any last winter.

Chickadees are always reliable! You didn't mention them, but I'm sure you have them.

You can also expect redpolls at some time during the winter, especially if there is a lot of snow in the north, and they are pushed south to feed - keep an eye out for hoary redpolls among them (extremely short-billed, "frosty" birds). When a flock of redpolls shows up, you'll go broke keeping the niger feeders full, LOL! Siskins also tend to favor niger, so I'm surprised they're not pigging out.

Also, evening grosbeaks - they seem to be especially attracted to lilac seeds (lots of lilac hedges in small towns in Sask!), and will eat sunflower. Other likely possibilities are pine grosbeaks, red crossbills, white-winged crossbills, particularly if there are any groves of spruce around - these tend to be roaming, and will come and go.

Re. other regulars at your feeders, you can probably expect to see white-breasted or red-breasted nuthatches or both, and downy and hairy woodpeckers are a given. The odd flicker that winters over (quite common here) may also show up. They all like suet and peanut/peanut butter feeders. Blue jays also like peanuts...and if you put out unroasted peanuts, will bury them all over (no big deal and which we actually found kind of fun - it caused me to learn what peanut plants look like, LOL!)

We haven't really had great success with putting fruit out in winter - though my sister finds it to be wildly popular in spring with the migrating songbirds when late storms hit. (She's also have had great results with fresh fruit and melon through the summer for orioles, robins, cedar waxwings, catbirds, warblers.)

By the way, most of these "nonmigratory" birds don't have distinctly different plumages between adults and immatures (unlike, say, warblers and some of the other summer migrants) - so identification will be a little easier for a while.

Female and immature house sparrows can always be distinguished by their, shall I say, lack of distinguishing characteristics? They are large, have that distinctive conical bill shape, and otherwise are just kind of...grey-brown. With more observation, I'm sure you'll be able to pick them out of any...

We haven't filled our feeder yet this year, but will probably do so soon. Chickadees are the usual visitors to our feeder and along with them come the pine grosbeaks. Last year we also had blue jays all winter (no whiskey jacks, though, which was weird), and a few evening grosbeaks. I tried to remember to get peanuts for the blue jays, but with my memory, it was a rare treat for them. We seldom see nuthatches, though my sister-in-law always has lots of them.

We don't feed birds in the summer. There's lots out there for them to eat, and besides, the cat goes out in the summer and it wouldn't be fair to attract birds for her to try and catch. The dog is worse, though. Darn thing knows he's a "bird dog" but he figures he should be catching anything that flies!

Thanks for the reminder for me to get out the birdfeeders. The poor little guys are probably having a heck of a time with yet another blizzard blowing through. Here chickadees, I find are the most common at the feeders, with redpolls and juncos dropping by every so often. There's also a pair or two of woodpeckers and bluejays. In my experience, the best way to attract a bluejay is to leave out dogfood.......they're always stealing it out of the dog's dish!

We feed the birds year round here. We have tried feeding different things....but the favorite seems to be the black oil sunflower seeds.

We have 3 kinds of woodpeckers so we tried putting suet out...but mostly they just ignored it...and the squirrels ate it...so we don't bother with that anymore.

During the winter we get the chickadees and the nuthatches that come through occassionally. And on some nice winter days we will see the squirrels at the feeder....which surprised me. Not much else visits the feeders here in the winter.

In the spring, summer and fall we get the migratory birds comming through and sometimes we have to fill the feeders everyday....when they are around.

Sierra

Laurie, I'm gonna try that with the dog food and see what comes to visit.

I forgot about the chickadees - they're around here too although they're not the most predominant bird at the feeders, and they flit around so quickly - I think they fly in, steal a seed, and fly back into the trees to eat it. The finches and pine siskens, on the other hand, sit around and feast for a bit. I noticed all summer that the pine siskins are almost tame - I can get within a few inches of them, sometimes had to actually shoo them off the feeder so that I could fill it again. And they are real gluttons for the Niger seed - we were filling 2 tube feeders a day for the little piggies. And late summer we actually took the sunflower feeder away for a week or so cause the sparrows were emptying it in a day (and it's a large feeder). They weren't eating much, either, just flicking all the seed out and onto the ground.

I've been watching for the redpolls as my dad mentioned to me the other day that they often show up. I'll have to keep an eye out for the other birds mentioned.

Where do you find is the best place for suet feeders? I initially hung them on a shepherd's hook for a couple weeks, then I moved them to a tree trunk but only about 6' up from the ground. Would hanging them on a branch be a better spot?

Hanging suet feeders in a tree works well - the suet-eaters feel more comfortable in the cover provided by the tree. And it's easy to see why.... Any bird-feeding set-up will eventually attract predator birds, such as merlins, which are permanent residents in most areas (i.e. they stay through the winter). It's always fascinating to see these beauties slicing though the feeding area, and sometimes earning a meal. You can always tell when one is around, or has just zoomed through - all the birds dash for cover, and then become very, very quiet for a time.

The peanuts worked! I put out a couple of handfuls this morning and within an hour the bluejays had found them...and quickly took them all so I put out more, and they took them all, so I put out more. I scattered them on the lawn in front of the window so we've been having great views.

Bluejays weren't the only visitors today - it seemed to be a very busy day for birds in the yard. Although it's nippy, there's no wind and the sun is shining. House finches (including a pumpkin orange coloured one), chickadees, pine siskin, the jays, a big flock of waxwings and a downy woodpecker all were in the front yard, it seemed all around the same time. I'm pretty sure bird activity draws more birds to come and have a look see at what's going on. Today it seemed everyone's preference was the Niger seed, even the woodpecker was bound and determined to get some out of the tube feeders.

I feed birds year round. I have most of the ones everyone has already identified. My favorite are the woodpeckers. I have both the Hairy and the Downy. I also have quite a few Flicker woodpeckers. One of them guards one of the feeders and will not let any other birds near it. ha ha

I also put out cracked corn in a tray like feeder for the Blue Jays and pheasants. I have a lot of pheasants that come to feast. ;)

Pudge - I only feed my Blue Jays a handful of peanuts every other day. I used to put quite a few out and watched them eat a couple then take all the rest of them and hide them throughout my gardens. If I keep feeding them more they will never eat the ones they've hidden and they are just wasted.

It sure is fun watching the birds titter around the gardens and feeders during the bleak winter months.

Tangula

It is fun watching them, and being that yesterday was an extremely lazy day for me, I'll bet I wasted 3 hours sipping coffee and watching them. Had a little brain wave, too, that I could/should reclaim about 150 sq ft of front lawn and turn it into a bird feeding garden outside of our large bay window. I'd like to trench in some electrical for lighting and maybe a bubbling bird bath, as well. (LOL, okay - I was watching the birds, but I was really planning yet another garden space).

Here's a link to some pics DH posted over at the bird watching forum.

Here is a link that might be useful: DH's pics