We all like seeing birds in our neighborhood, appreciating their beauty and marveling over the complexities of their lives. Setting out birdfeeders and nest boxes and birdbaths are great ways to support our local birds, and we’ve looked how to do that here at the Dawn Chorus. We’ve also explored how leaving fallen trees, dead branches and leaves alone rather than tidying up our yards will help birds survive.
Another way to draw birds to your backyard is to grow particular types of plants that appeal to different kinds of birds for their food, nesting or protection. There are various websites with suggestions, a few linked below. I’ll set out some examples of bird-vegetation matchups from these websites as well as from what I’ve observed myself.
Spring is a season many of us get the gardening bug, and nurseries go into high gear with inventory. Find a local nursery that sells good quality plants that will thrive where you plant them. Your soil, topography, vantage and climate will be better suited to some vegetation than others, even in a plant’s native range. But with some canny landscaping choices, we can all make our yards more appealing. Yards can benefit from vegetable gardens and nonnative flowering perennials and annuals too, but for trees and thickets, native vegetation is more attractive to birds, especially during nesting season. Definitely try to stay clear of plants that are invasive or otherwise harmful to your environment and wildlife.
My home is in the maritime Pacific Northwest, so I’ll use examples below that suit my yard. In each general bird lifestyle category, I’ll list plants that the birds are attracted to. Each of you will have your own species of birds in these categories and plants that are suited to your part of the country.
Sparrows
Birds: Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Savannah Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrow
Lifestyle: Feed mostly on seeds, some insects in spring. Mostly ground foragers, low shrubs. Nest mostly on the ground, some in low thickets.
Trees: Garry oak, Cottonwood, Pine, Hemlock, Big-leaf maple, Pacific crabapple, Bitter Cherry, Madrona
Shrubs: Serviceberry, Twinberry, Red-flowering currant, Salmonberry, Thimbleberry, Oregon grape, Salal, Elderberry, Huckleberry, Nootka rose
Finches, Grosbeaks and Tanagers
Birds: House Finch, Purple Finch, Red Crossbill, Pine Siskin, Evening Grosbeak, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Tanager
Lifestyle: Feed on seeds and fruits in various habitats depending on species, from grasses to shrubs to forests. Nest in trees.
Trees: Firs, Spruce, Pine, Hemlock, Maples, Alder, Hawthorn, Cottonwood, Willows, Madrona
Shrubs: Twinberry, Serviceberry, Mountain Ash, Thimbleberry, Honeysuckle, Osoberry, blackberries
Forbs: Composite flowers (Asteraceae family)
Warblers, Vireos, Chickadees, Bushtits and Wrens:
Birds: Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Hutton’s Vireo, Cassin’s Vireo, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, House Wren, Bewick’s Wren, Pacific Wren, Marsh Wren
Lifestyle: Forage and nest in shrubby thickets. Eat insects (and some seeds).
Trees: Maples, Alder, Willows, Garry oak
Shrubs: Red-twig Dogwood, Elderberry, Oceanspray, Bog birch, Ninebark, Salmonberry, Twinberry
Waxwings
Birds: Cedar Waxwing, Bohemian Waxwing
Lifestyle: Forage fruits in shrubs and trees. Nest in trees.
Trees: Hawthorn, Crabapple, Bitter Cherry, Redcedar, Madrona
Shrubs: Soopolalie, Serviceberry, Twinberry, Red-flowering currant, Elderberry, Salmonberry, Snowberry, Huckleberry, Oregon grape
Hummingbirds
Birds: Anna’s hummingbird, Rufous hummingbird
Lifestyle: Feed on nectar and small insects. Nest in trees and shrubs
Trees: Hawthorn, willows
Shrubs: Twinberry, Red-flowering currant, Salmonberry, Oregon grape,
Forbs: Honeysuckle, Lupine, Goatsbeard, Columbine, Penstemon
This kind of analysis can be done with other kinds of birds that you’d like to attract to your yard too, for example jays, orioles, quail, woodpeckers, doves, swallows. If you are in their range and would like to attract them more, I encourage you to follow up on that.
A few more lovelies in my neighborhood:
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Why native trees and shrubs?
Birds are better adapted to food and nesting site vegetation that they evolved alongside. Research by entomologist Doug Tallamy and others have shown that, for example, insectivorous birds are much better fed by insects in native trees. This makes sense considering that local insects are already well adapted to the native trees in their environment: their structure, nutrient supply, seasonal timing. Desirée Narango did a study in the Washington DC area:
Her analysis found that chickadees could only sustain their population when at least 70 percent of plants in a nesting area were native. For species like warblers, vireos, and flycatchers that are even more reliant on bug and insects, “that number is going to be higher,” Narango says.
- www.audubon.org/...
And while chickadees visit birdfeeders for seed, they don’t feed their chicks birdseed (nor do most birds). These scientists even describe our typically non-native dominated backyards as “food deserts” for wild birds.
Many of us have small areas to work with, and lots of my views of birds in native habitat are from my larger neighborhood where I walk most days. I’m lucky to live in a neighborhood where a lot of plants just grow as they will around houses and backyards, and not too many are weeds. Perhaps you are lucky enough to have areas like this nearby too.
But it’s wonderful to see birds coming and going from my own yard. It’s an evolving project, and as I’ve become more focused on birds, I’m working to make my yard more welcoming to them. When I bought my half-acre lot 30+ years ago it was half lawn and half early successional growth. At first I planted random bushes and trees to have something besides lawn and driveway: lilacs, ceanothus, viburnum, cotoneaster, rhodies, and a red oak, but they were almost all non native, what the local nursery carried at the time. Since then I’ve been adding natives too, such as Red-flowering currants, more rhodies, a Vine maple, Beaked hazelnuts, Oregon grape, Mock orange, huckleberries. The big old (nonnative) Red oak in my yard has been pretty much ignored by warblers and vireos, but a native Garry oak I planted 20 years ago is now getting big enough to host insects and caterpillars. I’m watching for any activity there. Some plantings have survived, others have not, like the Madrona I babied along for years. The other half of my lot has filled in passively with Elderberry, Salmonberry, Nootka rose, Snowberry, alders and firs, as well as native and nonnative blackberries. That’s the easiest way to create native habitat for wildlife! The birds live here too.
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Some handy links:
Grow These Native Plants So Your Backyard Birds Can Feast
A Guide to Luring Warblers, Tanagers, Orioles, and Grosbeaks to Your Yard
PNW Plants and the Birds that Use Them
Native Plant Guide, King County, Washington
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Birdy activity in your area this week?