Garden birds benefit most from feeding year round but winter is a time to provide foodstuffs with a high fat content to supplement their diet. Feed regularly so that birds will not waste vital energy visiting your garden when there is no food.
Place fat blocks in wire cages. Balls in plastic nets are not recommended as birds such as woodpeckers can get their tongues caught. Create your own fat blocks by melting suet into moulds such as coconut shells or logs with holes drilled in. Alternate different recipes to entice a range of birds; peanut cakes for starlings, insect cakes for tits and berry cakes for finches. Even small birds such as wrens will welcome finely chopped bacon rind and grated cheese.
Although fat is important, do also provide a grain mix or nuts to maintain a balanced diet. Sparrows, finches and nuthatches will enjoy prising the seeds out of sunflower heads. No-mess seed mixes are more expensive but the inclusion of de-husked sunflower hearts means there is less waste. Inferior mixes are often padded out with lentils. Use wire mesh feeders for peanuts and seed feeders for other seed. Specially designed feeders are needed for the tiny niger seed, loved by goldfinches.
Thrushes and blackbirds favour fruit. Scatter over-ripe apples, raisins and song-bird mixes on the ground for them. Consider planting berrying shrubs and trees, including favourites such as Malus, Sorbus, Cotoneaster and Pyracantha to fill gaps.
It is difficult to exclude bigger visitors such as pigeons and squirrels from a traditional bird table. Feeders give more control over what you attract and most designs can be fitted with squirrel guards. Feed placed on a wire mesh held just off the ground will entice ground-feeding birds such as robins and dunnocks.