Attracting birds to the home landscape
If you take the time to slow down and soak in the nature around you, it can be a pretty amazing thing. Annually, I will put up four fern hanging baskets on the front porch. It never fails that birds will use those hanging baskets as a great place to build a nest and raise young. It makes watering the plants a little more difficult, but I am happy to provide a nesting option. I can also remember that at my grandparent’s home, they had bird baths and bird feeders outside the dining room windows. You could always watch a variety of bird species while having a meal. I say it all the time, but if I ever slow down I may take up bird watching as a hobby in retirement.
Today, I will share information on what you need to do in order to make your home landscape more inviting to birds by way of a UGA publication by UGA Horticulturist, Bob Westerfield. Over the years, I have coached many basketball and softball team. Mainly, I coached a good bit of travel basketball. When my teams would play in a larger tournament, we would scout the other team and come up with a game plan for success.
The same can be said of having a plan in order to attract birds to your landscape. In basketball, have to play offense, defense and cut down on turnovers as a few keys to team success. In attracting birds to the home landscape, there are keys too. You need to provide food options, shelter/nesting areas and water. The better you can provide these needed options, the more likely birds will call your property home. Westerfield reminds that ornamental trees and shrubs can supply the required shelter and nesting areas. He adds that many ornamentals can fulfill more than one habitat requirement.
Multi-stem plants that can form a dense canopy can supply nesting options and cover. Note that as much as possible, trees and shrubs in the landscape should provide a year-round food source. This is where native trees and shrubs can be beneficial by providing fruits and berries for the birds. There can be times that the trees and shrubs do not provide food resources so you have to fill in the gaps.
This is where you may have to supplement with a commercial bird seed mix. There are some bird species that will consume a variety of seeds while other birds will only eat a few seed options. Keep in mind that sunflower seeds, proso millet seeds and peanut kernels are liked by most bird species. A fresh source of water is going to be important in attracting and keeping birds in the home landscape.
As I mentioned earlier, my grandparents had a bird bath close to the area where the bird feeder was located. The water source should be shallow so no more than 2 to 3 inches deep. You should replace the water on a regular basis. A fountain to keep the water moving would be ideal. The water source should be in elevated or in an open area to help the birds be on the lookout for predators. Yes, your family cat can be a predator. Do not forget to offer water even in the winter months.
In addition, birds need the cover or shelter areas to protect themselves from inclement weather and from predators. The multi-stem plants that form dense canopies can again help in these situations. The dense canopies make great nesting areas too. You need for your home landscape to be a mixture of deciduous and evergreen plants. This is because birds need the cover year-round. You may find where it is suggested that at least 25% of the trees and shrubs in a landscape should be evergreens.
I mentioned that bird tend to use my fern hanging baskets as nesting areas, but they also have some dense evergreens close by if they choose that option for nesting or if the weather is rough. I will add that UGA has a great chart as part of a publication that will list recommended trees and shrubs that can help attract birds and keep birds on the property.
The chart will describe the habitat element provided, fruiting season for that landscape item, if the specimen is deciduous or evergreen and the mature size of the ornamental. I can provide this chart by email or by mail upon request. If you are serious about having a bird population in the landscape, you need to do an inventory of the trees and shrubs you already have.
You then determine the mix of evergreen and deciduous items in your landscape, determine fruiting time and times you are limited on native food options plus make sure you have proper cover and nesting sites. You can use this information by then selecting and adding needed plants or trees to increase your bird populations.