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Plan when planting to attract birds to yard
Phil Dickinson Photo
Blue-gray gnatcatchers find food and shelter in small trees.
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Published: June 24, 2008
"I put up feeders but never get birds in my yard!"
I sometimes hear this lament from friends and readers. We are not all blessed with the perfect yard environment for birds. But there are things you can do to make your yard more bird friendly.
Birds need food, water and safe places for their nests. Moreover, visiting birds and their food requirements change with the seasons. In spring, migrating warblers, tanagers and orioles search trees and bushes for protein-rich caterpillars and insects. In summer, many breeding birds add fruits to their diet. Even hummingbirds and such seed-eaters as cardinals, chickadees and goldfinches vary their diets.
Think diversity. Birds have diverse preferences for habitat, food and nest location. A high canopy of poplars, oaks or sycamores harbors larvae and insects for migrating songbirds in spring and provides nest sites for many species during summer. Other birds live at or close to the ground or in open spaces. Plan your yard vertically to include tall trees, fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, brushy protected areas, flowers and ground covers. A fence or a wall is a great place for flowering or fruit-bearing vines.
Go native. Birds have adapted to native plants and foods over the centuries. For example, a flower species may depend upon particular insects for pollination, or an insect may eat only the leaves of one type of plant. In turn, a songbird species may eat only certain types of insects or larvae. Break the chain, and the songbird population declines.
Some non-native plants are more dangerous than others because they are invasive. They become established easily, spread rapidly and make it impossible for bird friendlier native plants to survive. Mimosa, multiflora rose, purple loosestrife, Japanese honeysuckle, English ivy and the infamous kudzu are among them.
Consider removing some of that lawn you have fertilized and fumigated for years. Pesticides and herbicides are bad for birds. Eagles and bluebirds made remarkable recoveries once DDT disappeared. Expand a garden or put in a new one along a fence or driveway. If you have a large area, create a meadow habitat through reduced mowing. Uncollected grass clippings provide nutrients without resorting to expensive fertilizers. Also, try organic solutions for insect and weed control.
Catbirds and cedar waxwings love the fruit of my black-cherry trees. Other native fruit-bearing trees that are popular with birds include red mulberry, serviceberry, holly and yaupon. We may treat pokeweed as a weed, but mockingbirds and other birds love the dark berries. Try keeping some in a wilder area of your yard.
Hummingbirds like such tubular flowers as native cardinal flower, penstemon, coral honeysuckle, jewel weed and lyreleaf sage. They also like the showy spikes of the red buckeye tree. For seed-eating finches, I keep my flower garden stocked with purple coneflower, blazing star and bee balm. Grow sunflowers or thistle in a bright, sunny location.
A water source is essential. Place a bird bath in a shaded area near ground level and close to suitable plant cover. You can make one out of a garbage can lid. Keep the bath full, and clean it regularly. For not much money, you can install a drip hose mechanism or a small pump to aerate a small pond. Change the water in your hummingbird feeders about once a week, especially in hot weather.
A bird-friendly yard provides shelter from predators and safe places for nesting. I have a large forsythia bush near my feeders and birdbath, where birds can escape a hungry cooper's hawk or an outdoor cat. If you want birds in your yard, keep the cats out. A blackberry thicket or brushy habitat at the edge of the yard offers food, protection and nest sites for birds like towhees and brown thrashers. A dead tree, if it is out of harm's way, provides nest cavities and insects for woodpeckers and nuthatches.
Plan before you go buy plants to stick in the ground or a patio container. Some plants do well in shade and others need full sun. Which areas get morning or afternoon sun? Are some moister than others? For many plants, you may need to add soil conditioner, compost and topsoil to the dense Carolina clay.
Contact the Forsyth County or N.C. extension services. The state service has a wealth of information on improving backyard habitat and selecting native plants. The Web site is www.ces.ncsu.edu. Also, find out about the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Habitat certification program at www.nwf.org/backyard. David Bare's Saturday column in the Winston-Salem Journal is another great local resource.
■ Bird's-Eye View is joint column by Ron Morris and Phil Dickinson. Today's column was written by Dickinson. Dickinson is a legal writer. He has been an active birder for 15 years, and is currently president of the Audubon Society of Forsyth County. Morris retired after 24 years as curator at the N.C. Zoo. He has studied birds on four continents, 22 countries and many islands. If you have a birding question or story idea, write to Bird's-Eye View in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101-3159, or send an e-mail to birding@wsjournal.com. Please type "birds" in the subject line.
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