Creating a Bird Friendly Garden

Many gardeners are well aware of the plight of our song birds. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology estimates that songbird populations have declined by 3 billion birds since 1970. Not only are songbirds critical for our habitat and gardens, they also bring joy as a welcome sight and sound of spring.

To help the song birds in your area, you can create a better habitat for them to thrive. Having a water source nearby, preferably one with moving water, is good for birds during a drought. Having piles of brush and leaves around the edge of your property provides places for birds to hide. Leaving dead or dying trees or “snags” in your forest is perfect for nesting and harvesting insects in the bark. 

 We also can plant shrubs that feature berries songbirds need for food and trees that support caterpillar populations that song birds need to feed their young. It's estimated one nest of chickadees need more than six thousand caterpillars to raise a brood from eggs to fledglings.

Plant native trees that attract butterflies and moths to lay eggs and form caterpillars. Trees, such as oaks, willows, poplars, crabapples and birch, will harbor more caterpillars than exotic trees such as gingko and Bradford pear. Birds also need places to nest and hide from predators. Evergreens are a good choice. 'Soft Serve'^® false cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera) is a hardy, tough evergreen that grows less than 10 feet tall. There's a golden needled version as well. If you have room for a tree in your yard, consider planting one of these trees.

For migrating birds and those spending the winter in your area, planting native shrubs that have high fat and caloric berries also helps. 'Berry Heavy' Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) features bright red berries that are ornamental and a good food source for birds on a 6- to 8-foot tall shrub. 'Low Scape Snowfire^®' aronia shrubs (Aronia melanocarpa) grows 4- to 6-feet tall and wide with black berries that birds love and the plants have red fall foliage color. 

Birds also thrive on eating insects and harvesting seeds from spent perennial flowers. Their feeding on insects also helps reduce damage on your plants. Plant perennial flowers that are heavy seeders. 'Goldsturm' rudbeckia (Rudbeckia fulgida) is a classic, native, black eyed Susan flower that is heat and drought tolerant. 'Pink Crush' New England aster (Aster novae-angliae) is another late flowering, native perennial that produces tons of seeds after the attractive pink flowers fade. 'Prairie Winds^® 'Blue Paradise' little bluestem grass (Schizachyrium scoparium) will provide red tinged foliage all summer and seed heads that will drop grass seed into winter for smaller birds. For earlier in the season don't forget echinacea. Select varieties that are not over hybridized and have sterile seed. 'Ruby Giant' coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is a classic, native plant with beautiful, ruby colored blooms. The spent flowers produce small seeds that birds love. We delight in watching the gold finches clean off our echinacea flowers in fall. This also brings up the point to leave these seed producers in the garden until spring. Cleaning up your garden plants in fall removes the seed source and many of the overwintering sites for pollinators and beneficial insects.