backyard bird habitat

This was my reply to a general question about backyard bird habitat and this was my reply.

Here are the elements I've added to my backyard and at least this winter I've had a lot of birds hanging out in the back yard.

• water, ideally at multiple levels and in different shapes.   Different species of birds like things to be a certain way.    One rainy weekend I left a wheel barrow in the backyard with a few sticks in and noticed a few days later there was a steady stream of robins were using the watery wheelbarrow as a bird bath, even though the store bought bird bath was sitting clean, full and unused.
• food, there are plenty of lists of plants that are particularly good for various species of birds which I won't try to re-create.  The bird feed I buy is usually sunflower seeds, millet and thistle.  I have a couple different feeders hanging from shepherd poles and on sitting on the picnic table.   Oregon Juncos are mainly ground feeders (mainly under feeders hanging from the shepherd poles),  many warblers love thistle, and basically everything except hummingbirds and hawks like sunflowers.    I'm not a fan of suet feeders as it mainly has turned into Starling feeders and quite honestly I hate Starlings (non-native, very invasive, competes for cavity nests aggressively, directly displaces a whole host of native birds,...).
• areas to hang out safe from predators (cats, rats, hawks, humans, ...) or to get out of the cold.  The arbor vitae in my backyard was thick with birds durning colds snaps this winter and at least 10 generations of scrub jays have fledged there as well.  Sadly their call is not particularly enjoyable, but it has been fun to watch the baby scrub jays standing on my garden fence trying to figure out how to flap their wings to get lift.
  

I would add that be mindful of where you place the water features and the bird feeders so they don't turn into cat feeders.   I have noticed more hawks hanging around the neighborhood so you might be creating bird feeders in a completely different context.