Nance is one of my co-workers at my bird store. She knows a lot about attracting backyard birds and is good at identifying them. For the last few months, Nance has pretty much only seen house finches and sparrows at her birdfeeders. She's not alone. Some of you haven't seen much variety, either. The lack of snow has meant less bird activity for some of you. On the other hand, many of you can't keep your feeders filled and tell us you're seeing a nice variety of juncos, nuthatches, woodpeckers and flickers.

Wild birds are just that — wild. Although we can tell what bird typically comes to what feeder and what you can do to attract a particular bird, factors like temperature, natural habitat, snow, luck and the presence of hawks or cats have an impact on the wild-bird activity in your backyard. We can give you tips on attracting more and different birds, but we can't make them come.

It's not uncommon for two customers who live in the same neighborhood to come into our store minutes apart with completely different reports of bird activity, even if they are feeding the birds the same type of food in the same way.

Let me tell you what Nance did last week. She changed how she fed her wild birds. First, she stopped using the food that wasn't working very well and added more of what was working — namely, bark butter. This spreadable peanut-and-suet mixture can be smeared directly onto the trunk of a tree. For Nance, it brought flickers and others almost immediately. Nance also took a cover off a tray feeder and overnight had much more bird activity. Apparently, Nance's birds were spooked by the cover. Many customers had reported success with such covers, but wild animals don't follow the rules.

So, if something's not working, change it.

It's quite common to need to move birdfeeders until you find just the right spot. But remember, the right spot one year might not work the next. A thistle feeder often needs to be moved around a yard until the birds stumble upon it. Birds sometimes find birdbaths immediately, but other times not for a few weeks.

Customers using feeding suet often have luck one year but not the next, even if the feeder is in exactly the same place. You might have to teach them to come to your suet feeder by gluing birdseed onto the feeder with peanut butter. This often jump-starts bird activity because birds usually recognize seed as food.

We assume that our birds are the same individual birds from one year to the next — meaning they'll certainly remember what to do at our feeders. Well, some are the same, birds but most aren't. We have to stay on our toes and make sure the newcomers feel welcome. There's a lot of turnover in the bird world.

Patience and variety can be helpful. Buy good-quality bird food. Use feeders and food designed for the birds in your area. Place the feeders where you can see them and wait a few weeks. If you don't see much activity, move things, try new types of feeders and don't be afraid to try different types of bird food like bark butter, or seed-and-nut cylinders. Change can be very attractive.

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