This is my bird feeder.  I found those rings at a dollar discount store and the birds love them.  They perch on them while waiting for their turn to feed.  You can find them in bird cataloges for a lot more than $1.

When we set up our bird feeder at our new house no birds came!  Wow, why was this?  I'll explain what I learned.

What did I learn?

I learned that birds are very unwilling to come out into the open.  Our feeder was between our house and our driveway, with no cover.  The birds were reluctant to come and feed in the open.

What did I do?

I had my husband collect some brush he had cut down and placed it against the post the feeder is on.  This gave the birds some cover and a feeling the feeder was not in the open.

Did it work?

YES, it worked great.  In fact we have now removed the brush and the birds still come.  It seems they were shy.  I learned from a study my husband did in college that birds returned to the same area year after year.  He caught birds in a wire mesh trap, banded them and then recorded the next year if they came back.  We found most of them did.  Our yard at that time was a bird heaven - lots of brush, fruit trees and grass seeds!  They loved it - but when we buildt our house it was in the middle of a feild place, so the birds didn't come until we provided them with "cover".  To this day, about 16 years from moving out here - we still have hordes of birds every year.  We usually continue to feed them through the spring to help them support their young.  We don't have snow or anything to cover up the food, so we aren't hurting the birds by continuing to feed them or letting the feeders run dry - the little demons, oh, I mean DARLINGS, will eat a 2 feeders full in a day and a half. 

In fact, I am about to go out and feed them now!