We love having our garden filled with birds, thus we have put up a variety of bird feeders. We also make lots of water available for the birds. The result is a 2½ year old that can identify about 8 birds in the backyard.

We recently had a guest that politely lectured us on how "un-cool" we were for creating an dependency for the birds on our seed; how the commercially available seed as like "junk food" -- and that when winter comes (we're in Minnesota) the birds might be less inclined to migrate in their search for food. I felt well chastised.

Are there ways eg Plants, Landscaping, that will attract birds into our garden and at the same time provide a food source for them?