Tips from BirdWatching.com:  People who don't start feeding birds until severe weather arrives may be missing out. Fall and early winter is the season to begin, even though natural foods are plentiful and the birds like the tufted titmouse above may not spend much time at your feeder yet. They are out in the fields and woods, feasting on seeds and berries and well-fed insects.

The birds that do visit feeders in the abundance of autumn are scouting. They need to be ready when cold weather hits. Cold will increase their calorie requirements, right at the moment that food becomes harder to get. Insects stop flying and wiggling. Snow covers seeds. Ice seals away tree buds, wild fruits, and the insects that woodpeckers and nuthatches like to find under the bark of trees.

So they need to be ready. That's why they're studying their resources in advance, noting where food is available, locating alternatives, and taking inventory of contingent provisions.

It's good to be included in their inventories. If the birds discover that your yard is worth visiting, they'll remember. And when that first storm hits, they'll show up. Hungry. Chirpy and chattery. Red and blue and black-and-white and yellow. Fun to look at on a snowy day.

On the other hand, if you wait until hard weather arrives, the birds may not ever realize what you have to offer. Under the stress of freezing weather, they can't afford the luxury of exploring. They must go where they know there will be a payoff. They might not discover your feeder all winter, even though it is abundantly supplied. So start offering provisions now.
Be sure to keep bird baths filled with water 

What foods to offer?  Seeds: black oil sunflower, white millet, niger, safflower, cracked corn, broken nuts.Offer suet in hanging baskets, for woodpeckers.Y ou can try some chopped up fruits. Don't worry about them if you have to be gone from your home for a while in winter. Birds are used to having a food source disappear.  They won't starve because of your lapse. It might take them a while to rediscover your yard when you return, but they'll be back.

Water -- the best advertisement One of the best ways to get the birds into your yard is to provide unfrozen water, replenished daily. Sometimes water is harder to come by in winter than food. You can get a heating element that soaks in your bird bath and turns on whenever the water begins to freeze, or purchase a bird bath with the warmer built in.

What the best kind of feeders to use?   Below you will find the best food / feeder type combinations for the most common Western PA birds. 

Common Western PA Birds:

Name                                     Feeder                                                    Food         

Mourning Dove                       Seed Mix, Hulled Sunflower                  Tabletop Tray

Dark-eyed Junco                    Seed Mix, Hulled Sunflower                  Ground, Tabletop Tray

Blue Jay                                Black Oil, Hulled Sunflower, Nuts         Tabletop Tray

Downy Woodpecker                 Suet, Hulled Sunflower                         Tree Trunk

White-breasted Nuthatch         Sunflower, Suet                                   Tabletop Tray, Tree Trunk

Northern Cardinal                    Black Oil Sunflower, Safflower             Tabletop Tray

Black-capped Chickadee          Sunflower, Niger, Safflower, Suet       Tabletop Tray, Tree Hanging

American Goldfinch                 Hulled Sunflower, Niger                        Tree Hanging

House Finch                          Hulled Sunflower, Safflower, Niger        Tree Hanging

Tufted Titmouse                     Black Oil Sunflower                               Tabletop Tray, Tree Hanging