Attracting birds

A bird feeder is a great start. Ideally set it up as "squirrel proof" from the start (ie on a pole with a baffle, and at least 10' from anything the squirrels can jump from like trees or house) Most bang for the buck especially in summer is black-oil sunflower seeds and a no-melt suet.

That said, honestly, the biggest thing you can do is provide an attractive, healthy environment. Stop spraying herbicides and pesticides...birds need insects more than they need seed! And insects need native plants to munch on. Circle of life and all that jazz. If you have cover (trees/shrubs), food, and water your yard will be VERY attractive to birds of all sorts year round.

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What can you guys tell me about attracting birds to my backyard?

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Wash your truck and park it in the backyard.

Most hardware stores should have feeders and feed.

I go outside nude around 8:00 AM start flapping my arms and making what I hope are bird noises.

The blue jays land on me about 10 minutes later.

The bird feeders are a start. If you want to create a more inviting place add a water feature or two. It makes a difference. A plastic saucer with a water wiggler is ideal. The water wiggler keeps water moving preventing mosquitoes which will allow the birds more comfortable visits.
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a few people bagging on squirrels here.
yes they eat the birdseed but I like having them around. Keeps the dogs occupied too. I don’t mind them raiding a feeder or two. We have an agreement on the fruit trees, they get the ones up high and I get the ones down low. The ones who don’t follow the plan, well those are pre marinated

I actually started from scratch last year. It takes time, like a year+ to get a regular crowd. Birds watch other birds. For me, Cardinal are the more observant and were first to feed. After them, others show up on schedule.

As for squirrels, I put my squirrel proof feeders on 5' tall free standing flower pot shepards hook. Its more than 20' from anything a squirrel could jump from which is good and bad. The bad is that birds dont have decent perches to sit and watch. Squirrels cant physically take from feeder which is plus, but birds are pickier than my toddlers. The birds discard what they dont want and throw it on ground, thats what the squirrels go after.

Speaking of, this discarding of unwanted seed by birds also attracted rats for me. A new type of rat Ive never seen. Like walk past me 2' away while talking to neighbors. I killed two since they are easy targets.

My only recommendation is that you not put the feeders in a location where cats can ambush the birds. I made that mistake once and constantly found cardinal feathers laying around. If cats see a pattern they will hide in the closest place to ambush.

I took my first shot at a bird feeder 3 weeks ago, squirrels destroyed it less than 6 hours after hanging it. Going to buy that squirrel-proof feeder mentioned above. All of the seed that fell did attract a bunch of birds for the next few days though.

One tip I haven’t seen mentioned. When you first put the feeder out, tie a red ribbon on or close to the feeder. Many birds rely on cardinals to alert for predators and the red on the feeder will make them more comfortable.