Hello all from Illinois and those that choose to visit. I'm new to the forum too. Happy to be here. I decided to join when I had a brighly colored yellow parakeet visit my outdoor feeder. Quite shocking actually! Must be an escapee.
As far as the butterflies go (to our friend from Sweden) ...my neighbor and I have been growing milkweed in our back yards to attract the butterflies and boy oh boy does it work! I've seen the monarchs, yellow swallowtails, black swallowtails, and was lucky enough to attract a new variety to the yard this summer ... the dark green fratillary. Very cool.
We've also put up many, many feeders. Here's a sampling of what we attracted this summer/fall: sparrows, warblers, wrens, finches (american, house, purple), cardinals, blue jays, wood peckers (hairy, downey and red bellied), white breasted nuthatch, red breasted nuthatch, european starlings, gackles, cowbirds, robins, eurasian collared doves, black capped chickedees, hummingbirds and ... hawks
... they're not too friendly to the rest of the crew ... oh, yeah, when I had a sick skunk in my back yard, we seemed to attract a few turkey vultures too...luckily, they decided to leave the skunk alone.
I'm sure I'm forgetting a few of my feathered friends, but you get the gist... if there is food they will come...