Besides using bird houses, feeders, and baths. Do you use your flower beds and landscaping to attract birds to your yard? What plants do you use? How do you layout your garden in respect to birdbaths, feeders and houses?
The answers to your questions will depend on what birds you hope to see. Cardinals, orioles and robins are not cavity nesters--they need trees and bushes to nest in. Bluebirds and swallows are cavity nesters, and need either old woodpecker holes or boxes. Wrens are also cavity nesters, but they, like bluebirds, need specialized boxes. Food is the next question--unless you want to use feeders, you may want to use plants that provide food. Million Bells, Fuschia, Morning Glories--those will attract hummingbirds. Sunflowers will attract cardinals and bluejays. Robins, bluebirds and swallows are bug eaters, so feeders and plants will typically not attract them. Also consider plants, trees and bushes that will provide food over the winter (such as berries and seeds). Layout will depend on your home and yard. For your own pleasure, you'll probably want to lay out your garden so you can see the birds often from inside.
Good question. Birds love bushes with berries on them. Nandinas, junipers and dogwoods are just a few. Humming birds love plants that can provide nectar. Morning glories are a good example. Blue birds like their houses in the open with a very small opening. Feeds need to be near trees so birds can fly up if cats come around. The more birds you attract the less insects you will have.
Depending on whether you want to attract specific birds or just any that are usual to your area, you can also leave parts of your garden more natural and less manicured. By this i mean, don't pick up every dead leaf when it falls. Leaf falls are good places for birds to find insects. And i agree with others that have said don't use pesticides. They kill off many of the bugs that birds eat and they are harmful to the birds as well. As to your birdbaths, they should be set no more than a couple of yards away from trees or bushes so that they have a place to fly off to when the inevitable cat shows up. You can also attract other creatures to your garden as well that can be beneficial. I live in the netherlands and in our garden we have a hedgehog that lives in it year round. It's a small garden but because we leave leaves and such in parts of it...the hog has a constant supply of food.
Keep feeders and baths near trees or shrubs where the birds can go for cover if needed. When I put one of my feeders near the pines in my yard, I found more came to feed. Almost all birds like sunflowers, but thistle (niger) seed will attract finches (my favorite) and black-capped chickadees. There are many plants that attract hummingbirds, look online and you will find tons of sites. Buy a hummingbird feeder and make your own nectar using 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Some say you have to boil it but I don't and I get lots of birds. If you want more than one hummingbird feeder in your yard, I would suggest putting one in the front and one in the back because they are quite territorial and you won't see as many. Good luck and have fun, the work is worth it!
Hummingbirds are attracted to lots of different flowers. Like Heliconia and Fuchsias. Mexican Shrimp Plant are very pretty red flower that attracts Hummingbirds and Butterflies. Go to a nursery and look for nectar producing flowers. As for layout and landscaping I've never used them but I've seen landscaping computer programs that are suppose to help you with this. you can look into it.
