Putting out bird food can boost populations of common, generalist species at the expense of others that are struggling: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/25/feeding-birds-garden-boost-dominant-species
Consider planting native species and providing other habitat features such as water, as a possible alternative.
I will definitely take these things into consideration.
groats, cereals, oatmeal, sunflower seeds, hemp, pumpkin, nuts, dried fruit and prepared seed mixtures for wild birds; for many birds animal fat (lard or tallow) as well as seeds and nuts flooded with melted fat are a delicacy
In our upper Midwest USA feeder system we use primarily black oil sunflower seeds, nyjer thistle, peanuts (in and out of shellāin-shell attracts Blue Jays), and suet. Also, we make nectar for Hummingbirds (and Baltimore Orioles and House Finches drink it) with sugar and water. We have an Oriole feeder with strawberry jelly (we hear grape is fine, too). If you donāt want as many House Sparrows, maybe donāt use seed mixes with millet, corn, or oats. MIxes with dried fruit may attract birds, too, but seem to cost more.
Last year, I started putting out live meal worms in a raised feeder in my condoās patio yard. All was fine for a while. Then, for the first time in 15 years, I started seeing rats in my patio. Maybe they were there before, but the presence of such desirable food brought them out in the open in daytime. 
So, just consider what other creatures may be attracted to your feeder and think if you have a strategy to deal with that.
I have never had such problems with nectar feeders (for hummingbirds, e.g.) but I also donāt live in bear territory.
Is it true about nyjer seeds for goldfinch?
I remember one year, a āvolunteerā sunflower appered in my plot at the community garden ā presumably, whomever had that plot the previous year had grown sunflowers. That one sunflower produced enough black oil sunflower seeds to fill a small feeder, and I had a Chestnut-backed Chickadee who came regularly ā the only bird at that small, window-mounted feeder. Since the sunflower was a one-off, I did not put out the feeder the following year ā and then was sad when I saw that same chickadee come looking for it. It remembered my window as a food location.
Iāve had some mixed experiences with nyjer seeds. Sometimes, the birds go crazy at the feeder and pick it clean within hours, and other times it just sits there and gets moldy after a while and I have to throw it all away. I think it might have to do with how fresh the seed is. Iāve had better success with bags bought at stores with high turnover (e.g. big box stores) vs. smaller pet food stores where it might sit on the shelf for longer. Iāve gone to buying smaller bags so I donāt have to store them as long and also started storing it in the freezer and that seems to help if you have the freezer space to do that.
The hummingbirds do that for me. They migrate so once theyāre gone I take down the nectar feeders and replace them with seed feeders. If Iām late getting the nectar feeders back out in spring, the little hummers coming back to my yard will knock on my windows to let me know itās time to put them back out.
Iām in UK so talking about Carduelis carduelis.
White millet is the bulk of many inexpensive seed mixes and is a favorite of house sparrows. If youāre in an urban or suburban area, attracting them, especially in large numbers, generally means pushing away other species. I live in the north-east US, have gotten familiar with individual native birds and have had cardinals recognize me. I would see them all the time. They would come to a nearby tree or bush and wait for me to throw a peanut or piece of walnut. On a walk in my neighborhood, this happened, as was usual, someone saw and was amazed at just seeing the cardinal at all. She told me she had been going through something like 20lbs of inexpensive mixed seed per week for years. She would have 100s of house sparrows come to her busy feeder all day, but despite males being an eye-catching red, couldnāt remember the last time she saw a cardinal!
In less-populated areas, house sparrows may not have that strong of a presence and many seeds may be great, but I have seen far too many attacks, injuries and deaths from this invasive species to recommend anything that encourages them at all. For seed, Iāve taken to upside-down, cling feeders, thick wires to interfere with their hovering, mirrored films, and/or using safflower seed that they donāt particularly like or striped sunflower seeds that have a thick enough shell to be difficult for them. For feeding wildlife that canāt access these, I am outside nearby to ensure that no house sparrows or starlings are fed. This is not easy, as they are bolder and more aggressive than native species. If the invasive birds manage to get anything while Iām there, they are emboldened and others notice and are emboldened as well. Afterwards, I do what I can to be sure nothing that they would eat is left behind.
I think native wildlife is worth the extra effort of avoiding subsidizing species that attack, kill them, and compete with them over arthropods to feed their young. If this canāt be avoided with feeders, I think it maybe better to concentrate only on suitable habitat and native plants.
Nyjer is a great thing to have for goldfinches, but I wouldnāt put it in the blend, just solo in a special feeder.
Nyger goes bad quickly so itās better to buy it in the amount you think you will use in 1 or 2 months from a place that is conscious of their stock levels.
Finches tend to move around quite a bit so unless itās nesting season, where your population is going to be more static (ie the birds that are physically breeding near you), you can see quite a bit of variance in how many turn up at your feeder (in a winter Iāll get days where just a few birds show up, and other times when I count 50 at the feeders). So it is important to check your feeder periodically and if you are in a low period for them, use the opportunity to give your feeders a cleanup.
Not a big fan of nyger as it seems to never get fully consumed and since it can go bad I have to dump the remainder from the feeder. Itās also rather expensive. But it does bring in goldfinches and pine siskins in my area (SW US).
Suet seems to bring a good diversity of species and gets used up quickly especially in winter. Another winter food Iāll buy is a small seed block for the ground foragers.
My favorite combination is black oil sunflower seeds, suet, and Lyric fruit and nut. The Lyric fruit and nut is expensive, but I just mix it in with the sunflower seeds and sometimes a special seed mix from Agway. We get (at various times of the year): cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, red-wing blackbirds, sparrows, blue jays, grackles, juncos, hairy, downy, and red-bellied woodpeckers, goldfinches, titmice (titmouses?āthere seems to be debate about the plural), nuthatches, the occasional flicker, and in the spring only, Baltimore orioles (when they arrive, I put out oranges). Sometimes something unusual will also show up, but these are the usual suspects. Oh, and of course, squirrels and chipmunksāwe like them too.
(DovesāI forgot the doves.)
This has been one of my personal social-media campaigns lately: putting out the message that ācheaperā is not necessarily the most important consideration.
I live in delhi capital of india, pollution is high here, so yeah I live in city, birds dont care once the the bird knows plant have food, plant is doomed :)
The best bird food is generally live insect food, and the best way to provide it is to manage your yard to maximize biodiversity of native plants. That said, not all native plants are equally beneficial, so for instance, youāre better off with, say, oaks or goldenrod than, say, pokeweed or a native rhododendron.
Birds also love seeds and fruits, generally with some species preferring one and some preferring the other.
But again, seeds not at a feeder are better. Feeders tend to spread disease, and can also sometimes support birds that would not survive as well without them and that compete with native birds (house sparrow, brown-headed cowbird). Better to plant seed- and fruit-producing plants all over your yard, so the seeds are spread out to begin with (for species like goldfinch that prefer eating them off the plants) and so that they blow around in the wind (for species like mourning doves and sparrows that usually eat them off the ground.) Also diversify the size of seeds: big birds like bigger seeds, and smaller ones like smaller seeds, in general. Fruits support thrushes and related birds, including robins, mockingbirds, as well as other fruit-eating birds like waxwings.
I donāt know the western species as much but in the east, some of the best fruit-providing plants for birds are Eastern redcedar and American holly, and trees and shrubs like tupelo, sassafras, spicebush, and in the southeast southern magnolia (its fatty seeds attract different birds than most fruit too.)
Oaks with small acorns (like willow oak, pin oak in the east) are fantastic for larger birds like blue jays, and in the west, the seed-caching acorn woodpecker. Some trees also are great for seed-eating birds. For example I have seen rose-breasted grosbeak (similar to the black-headed grosbeak in the west) eating ash seeds off the tree. Having trees is also important for seed-eating birds as birds like nuthatches use crevices in bark to crack large seeds, and chickadees and other birds can cache seeds in cavities in trees for the winter.
I just went on a walk today and I saw tons and tons of birds utilizing an area near my home (not really on my property, itās a waste area along the railroad tracks) that had mostly been devoid of birds before I started working with it. Itās now full of many different species of birds. Basically what I did is pull out the monoculture of poison hemlock and spreading thistle, two plants that are invasive here, and seed in tons and tons of different native plants. Now itās teeming with life at all times of year. This time of year itās dominated by seed-eating birds, mourning doves, song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, and junco. In migration common yellowthroats (warblers that like low, wet, brushy areas) use it a lot. Also I saw some wrens today, they are strictly insectivorous so if you see a lot of wrens in an area you know there is a lot of insect food.
How are they not native to US though?
This works only if you have alien species in the area, e.g. all introduced species here are ducks, so feeders canāt do any bad by supporting them.
Thereāll be never enough fruiting trees on your property, a flock of fieldfares+waxwings or bullfinches can it all the fruits in one day, so harvesting fruits from fall (saving them from getting bad) and drying them for winter months is usually suggested, I donāt know if american robins get in large flocks like that as even our other trushes donāt do that, but probably thereās another species that can have similar āeffectā of eating everything fast and migrating further.
Our family enjoy feeding our back yard friends black oil sunflower seeds and nyjer, a kind of thistle. Weāve also found that some of the bigger birds go ga-ga over unsalted roasted peanuts in the shell.
The issue is that theyāre only native to the great plains. They are not native to the east coast, but they have expanded there due to human influence, including both clearing of land to create more open habitat, and increase in edge habitat and increase in their food supply both through feeders, and through agriculture, and perhaps one of the biggest problems, feedlots associated with intensive livestock production. Although feeders are probably less of an issue than feedlots and habitat clearing and modification.
Many of the populations of nesting warblers native to the eastern deciduous forests have not co-evolved with cowbirds, and thus have no effective behavioral adaptations to prevent or reduce harm from nest parasitism.
If you look at warbler species that do co-occur with cowbirds in the great plains, such as yellow warblers, they mostly have effective methods to deter or manage cowbird nest parasitism. For example the yellow warbler will often respond to the presence of a cowbird egg (which is too heavy for such a tiny bird to lift out of the nest) by adding additional material to the nest and rearranging it, buring the cowbird egg, sometimes even abandoning one or more of its own eggs and laying new ones, so that the cowbird egg is insulated from the heat of incubation, and does not hatch.
Where I live (northern Delaware / Southern PA), the two main invasive bird species are house sparrows and starlings. House sparrows are mostly supported by feeders, and compete aggressively with native cavity-nesting birds. Starlings are probably not appreciably supported by feeders. There are few areas in North America, though, where there are not house sparrows and where that species is not supported in large part by feeders.
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