I went to a chick-lecture at the feed store on Saturday. Picked up a couple good tips, but was a bit put off by the presenter's rather sexist attitude. Even though the audience was quite clearly about half women and men, he more or less addressed us all as housewives with a bit of extra time on our hands. Huh?? I'm guessing he was in his mid-70s, as he said he'd been working for Purina for 50 years (the sponsor, so really kind of an infomercial type presentation, pushing Purina products).
Here were a couple take-aways that I found helpful: (1) When cleaning/replacing water, the birds prefer tepid over cold, he suggested keeping an extra bucket full for the replacement water but I usually clean my waterer at the kitchen sink so can easily just adjust the temp. (2) To reduce waste, keep the waterers and feeders at about the level of the birds' backs. My waterer is at about that height, but my feeder sits flush to the ground and I do note a lot of spillage, so will do some modification there.
