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 almost posted an observation along these lines several weeks ago. In a one-week span I noticed three separate cowbird chicks all being attended to by blue-grey gnatcatchers. There was always a single cb chick to each set of birds, and never any sign of additional BGGC chicks vying for the food. In that same time span I also noticed a CBchick being fed by a pair of indigo buntings. It's not hard to find them as they are very raucous and conspicuous. I am curious how the numbers and densities of birds most typically affected by CB predations are doing here because we have hordes of cowbirds, yet I always hear/see vireos and thrushes and others that are prime targets for parasitism. I check my nest boxes regularly and destroy any CB eggs in the hopes that at least my small wooded acreage can better sustain songbirds in a time of decline, but we live in farmland with any remaining wooded areas being highly fragmented. Flocks of winter 'blackbirds' are usually groupings of redwings, starlings, grackles and cowbirds fattened up on a steady and readily available farmland diet. I only wonder what our songbird demographics will do in the next few decades.

I used to feed stale bread to the outside birds.My neighbors dad,who lived at the house part time after retiring to Pa,,,told me it was no good for the birds. So for the last 5 years I have bought wild bird seed,..A year or so ago my neighbor told me I needed to stop feeding them as they pooped on his 50 thousand dollar truck.I told him to F off...Months later I got a warning from town saying I can only feed them with a bird feeder,...I got one,,,,Then he told me not to feed them more than once a day.At 63,with a bad hip,I fed them if I happened to see it empty whenever that was.I got a ticket from town saying the food that falls to the ground as they eat,is illegal.,,,How can people be so mean?

My entire family has always fed the birds and gone on bird watching weekends, etc. my sister also raises chickens, and introduced me to live meal worms as a source of protein for birds (and fish and pet reptiles and even humans). But, they are especially beneficial for nesting birds raising chicks. As I read about the precipitous drop in the numbers of pollinators, it only makes sense that other insects might be threatened as well. And, if there are fewer insects, there might be less food for the birds to feed their chicks. Plus, I need another hobby, right? So, I raise live meal worms in my basement and feed them to the birds. Now I have robins looking in my window each morning wondering when breakfast is coming. I'm looking forward to when the babies start to fly and can visit the feeders themselves. Martha