As someone said much earlier in this post, insect-eating birds don't go for birdseed, except for the chickadees. For insect-eating birds, you want a birdbath, and suet. Many more birds will use the birdbath than either suet or birdseed. You will want a shallow birdbath with a rough inner surface, your classic concrete birdbath. Birds won't go in water that's more than a couple inches deep, and they want a rough surface so they don't slip. These are not the easiest to maintain - I've seen birdbaths on the market that are deep and smooth and people think they're better because they won't have to fill them so often, and they'll be easier to clean, but the birds won't touch them. I get birds at my birdbath year round, even when it's been raining for weeks. Robins, jays, towhees, finches, sparrows, warblers, chickadees, bushtits, juncos, you name it. Place it a few feet from shrubbery or a tree, so they can see any cats coming and dive for cover. I love watching them, especially in late summer when the new fledgling birds are learning how to use the birdbath. For suet feeding I have what's called a 'crow cage' from Wild Birds Unlimited. It only allows smaller birds to get to the suet. Means the towhees and woodpeckers can't get it either, but it's necessary to keep the crows and starlings off. I have the suet cage itself suspended about an inch from the bottom of the cage so the flickers can hang from the bottom and reach the suet. The starlings can just barely do that too, but it's hard enough for them that they rarely do so. Ask to see their suet cage setups that keep the starlings off, and you'll see what I mean. I also take down the suet when the starlings are nesting, usually April, and don't put it back up again until they're done in summer. To minimize seed waste I buy straight black oil sunflower seed. It's more expensive than the mixes, but the birds toss out much of what's in the mixes.

you can make suet without meat fats by using vegetable shortening or oils or using peanut butter which contains lots of vegetable fat. mix in bird seed or cornmeal or flour to thicken and you can add nuts or raisens or fruit bits. and many birds like sweet suet with syrup or corn syrup which contains sugars and fats. in nature birds eat lots of seeds from plants or grasses and grains such as corn or milo or wheat which are high calorie. birds use tremendous amounts of energy in cold weather and can get the energy from grains and seeds and plant parts but fats are just a higher source and make it faster and easier for the birds to get the fats and sugars and proteins they need.

my sister has tons of birds around her place and many eat off the ground under the seed feeders. she just about gave up on feeding birds cause the stray cats wound lay under her shrubs and bushes and pounce on the birds. She found some green enameled fence at home depot and put 4 green metal fence posts in the ground and wraped the fence around them. it did not take long for the birds to get used to it and the green color was not very noticeable except close up because it blended in with the surrounding plants. she can still fill the seed feeders from a short step ladder. and says she has not lost any birds lately.

Sounds like you have great habitat for many birds, towhees included. If you learn their song & it's an easy one "Drink your tea" & then just "Tea" or "Towhee", you should be able to see them more often. They love to hang out under feeders & do that chicken scratch shuffle they do. I prefer the old name "Rufous-sided Towhee" as it describes the bird. Susan