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...

I used to have bird feeders, but not since we have had an active population of black bears. While I like having them around, I don't want to train them to think that our house = food. Although the bears hibernate, they are awake before there are many food sources for seed eaters, and I hate to habituate the birds to my feeders and then have to remove them in early spring. I do want to put out a heated bird bath for winter, though, and may try a suet feeder since about the time I would have to bring in the feeder due to the bears waking up, there would be insects available for the suet eaters. We do have a lot of birds, but they don't spend as much time near the house as they would if we had feeders. I do plant for the birds and often have nests in shrubs near the house, seed eating birds on plants where I've let the seed heads stand, and insect eaters in the shrubbery. Purple martins eat flying bugs, so that is one of the reasons folks put up houses for them. Since you plan to put up bird houses, read up about the requirements for a house that the birds will use, the preferred size openings for different birds, and how best to site them since different types of birds look for different set-ups. Here's some general information on bird houses from the National Wildlife Federation: http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Attracting-Nesting-Birds.aspx The link below is from Cornell University Lab of Ornithology's Project Nest Watch. If you go to the LEARN tab in the upper right part of the page, there are various articles about bird houses and landscaping for bird habitat that you may find useful. Until you have more shrubs or small trees near your feeders for landing spots, you can put a lage tree branch or old Christmas tree in a pot and fill the pot with rocks or gravel to hold it in place. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell's Project Nest Watch

I started reading this thread just out of curiosity, and to see if I might learn something new. Susan, please don't misunderstand, but your post made bird feeding sound like rocket science! ;-) I kept reading and saw Stargazzer's comments and that is my philosophy exactly: One thing you need to know is we feed birds for our pleasure. I feed the birds for my pleasure. I hang two feeders, one a large heavy wire cylinder type and the other is a Finch feeder. I buy BOSS for the wire type and Niger (thistle) for the other one. The large one hangs from a tree which is mulched all around, so not killing any grass. If you have Goldfinches in your area be sure you get a feeder that is for Goldfinches. It usually has a yellow top, and the package will show the GFs hanging upside down to feed. (The perch is above the hole.) Again, that is for my pleasure, but also keeps other birds from devouring the expensive Niger. House finches, etc. can't do that little acrobatic stunt. I don't put out any bread or scraps of any kind; that would only attract more grackles and other "bottom feeders.") I don't feed in the Winter, because of my wobbly knees and legs, which could cause a fall in the snow and ice. I attract several kinds of birds including those pesky grackles, which I despise the way most folks despise squirrels. This year I am seeing Red Wing Blackbirds, which I haven't seen before. Very amusing though to see a grackle trying to hang on to the side of the big feeder, with wings flapping. Because I'm in a newly developed area, we don't have squirrels because the trees aren't big enough to attract them I guess. Doesn't stop the birds though. Don't take bird feeding too seriously! Just enjoy! Hang some feeders and see what you get. Fine tune as you go, Sue

Yes, I think we feed every single bird and squirrel in our town by the amount of $ we spend on seed, plus bread and peanuts. We have 4 feeders plus a hummingbird feeder and birdbath in our back yard and 5 feeders plus a hummingbird feeder in our front yard, plus two tube feeders and 3 watering dishes/birdbaths. We call our front yard our "Wildlife Entertainment Center". Some of those crazy squirrels we have named: Barny, Metal, Logger, Chewy, Loco and Loco Jr. Soon we will have an influx of redwinged blackbirds that will strip all feeders clean. This happens twice a year. They stay around at least 3 months each time.Our feed bill doubles then. Our hummers have left now to travel further south and won't return until April. Sure miss those little darlings.