Change is the only constant when it comes to your birds.

Two weeks ago, I wrote that if you see a black and orange bird at your seed feeder, it is a black-headed grosbeak, and if you see a black and orange bird at your nectar feeder, then surely it is a Bullock's oriole. Well, a couple days later, a customer emailed me saying the exact opposite happens at her house. She included several photos of a black-headed grosbeak hanging from a nectar feeder.

This happens to me a lot, actually. I sometimes forget birds are wild animals, and just because something tends to be true for most people doesn't mean it's true for everybody. At our store, we try to avoid definitive statements like, "squirrels won't get to this feeder," "you will see lots of hummingbirds soon" and "woodpeckers will come to this suet." Even if we've seen it and have confirmation from a hundred customers that something works to attract a certain bird, we just can't be sure it will happen the same for everyone.

It is good to remember that birds are wild animals and don't read the guide books; everyone's yard is different — habitat matters; and sometimes the birds can be different from one yard and one year to the next.

Often in our store, one customer will tell me his or her woodpeckers only eat insect suet, while five minutes later, other customers will explain that only the fruit cakes suet works for them. Both are right, of course. Often it's a matter of perseverance and experimentation. For instance, if you've never been able to attract orioles, it doesn't mean you never will. Just because you don't see goldfinches doesn't mean you shouldn't try again.

Every week, several customers say something like, "This is the first time I've ever seen (a particular) bird in my backyard, and I've been feeding for years!" One thing you can count on in this hobby is that you can't count on the same thing happening every year.

For instance, many of you are seeing lots of evening grosbeaks at your feeders right now. In my experience and in talking to many customers about their years of feeding the birds in Santa Fe, most evening grosbeaks have scattered about to nest by now. Normally by mid-April, most of our customers only see an occasional evening grosbeak; this year, I bet 20 customers every day tell us about the dozen or more evening grosbeaks still at their feeders. I don't know why. Maybe it's the drought. Maybe these beautiful, large, yellow, white and black birds don't want to stray too far from your birdbath. We'll see if they stick around through the summer.

Weather, food availability, climate change, rain or lack thereof and a thousand other factors influence the birds in your yard from one year, one season or even one day to the next.

All I know right now is that we are having a fabulous spring migration and that it's a great time to put out some good food and water for the birds because you never know what you'll see next.

Anne Schmauss is the co-owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Santa Fe. She is the author, with her sisters, of For the Birds: A Month by Month Guide to Attracting Birds to Your Backyard. Her articles also appear in Birds and Blooms magazine.