I have had a lot of success attracting a wider variety of birds now that my feeders aren't overrun by house sparrows. I still have a few that visit my platform feeder, but most of them have given up on even trying to visit the feeders with the wires. There is one house sparrow who has figured out how to fly under the wires. Otherwise, they all stay away. I am amazed it worked so well.
I've added a few things for my feathered visitors over the past month. I added a wreath style peanut feeder last week. I don't think my blue jays like it much because they have to work to get a peanut, but the other birds like it. The nuthatches visit it almost daily, and surprisingly the Carolina wren really likes it, too. So far our neighborhood squirrel has not made an attempt to raid it. 
I received a window feeder for Christmas. I put it up as soon as I received it, but no one visited it for almost 3 weeks! Finally this week a couple house finches tried it out. They don't visit it frequently and are rather skittish when they do, but it's a start.
I also made my own suet a couple weeks ago. The cardinals seem to like it best. Store bought suet is inexpensive, but I made my own with stuff I already had on hand, so it didn't cost me anything. I'm sure I'll try it again when my current batch is gone, assuming it's still cold outside. I think it would melt if it was very warm out.
Since I started counting my backyard birds, I'm now up to 23 species! These are pictures of some of the other birds I've had visit my backyard feeders recently. Technically the hawk didn't visit my feeder, but he was looking for food in my backyard!
