Paint a picture with plants to make your home more beautiful, liveable, and enjoyable.
Landscaping the home grounds introduces birds into this picture, adding colorful, living motion and the glorious music of bird song. A garden without bird life is an incomplete entity.
To make your garden attractive to birds doesn’t mean the home grounds have to be turned into a weedy sumac and blackberry patch.
An amazing variety of plants is available with multiple values, making any area more beautiful year-round and attracting birds.
The Importance of “Edges”
In nature, we find the greatest concentrations of birds and other wildlife where two habitat types meet. This is known in wildlife management as the “edge.” We often see it where woodlands meet the edge of a field or water area.
Around the home, we see “edges” where shrubs and trees meet lawn areas. Wildlife likes to make its home in natural edge areas because there, it finds plants of a wide variety.
Variety of Shrubs
The edge of the woods is where many shrubs are found. There, such small trees as the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), the sassafras (S. albidum), the wild crabapple, and the redbud (Cercis canadensis) grow.
There also are found shrubby dogwoods and viburnums. These plants grow on the edge of the woods because they find the right combination of sunlight and light shade.
Selecting Right Trees
Forest and field border plants can’t live in the dense shade of the woodland trees. They are the forest’s pioneers, ever creeping outward into the sunlight of the open areas, with the large trees following behind them.
Wildlife lives in the greatest abundance and variety in forest edges because nesting sites are plentiful.
More importantly, shrubs and small trees that grow in edge situations are abundant producers of wildlife food, especially bird food.
Small Trees and Shrubs That Attract Birds
When you plan to bring birds into the garden, you propose creating edges like those found naturally in wild situations. The largest plants belong at the rear.
Whether they will be evergreens, such as pine, spruce, or fir, or deciduous trees, such as maple, oaks, or sycamore, select those that grow successfully in your neighborhood.
Small Trees
If you have a large area, next will be small trees. If it is one of the small modern homes on a comparatively small lot, the small trees would be relegated to the rear of the property to replace the outsized shade tree types.
Small trees have a wide selection of coloration of bloom, fruit, and fall foliage. Most of them provide fruits that attract birds.
Near the top of the list is the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) in the east and (C. nuttalli) in the west.
Next in all-around values are the crabapples. This group ranges from a large shrub, Malus sargenti, to the 20 to 30-foot favorite M. floribunda, and the 40′ to 50′ feet Siberian crabapple.
Keep in mind that for birds, the small-fruited ones are best. Pea-sized fruits are bite-size for birds. Varieties with fruits that persist into winter are Malus baccata, M. zumi calocarpa, and M. sieboldi arborescens.
Here also belong such small trees as mulberry (Morus), hawthorns (Crataegus), Fringetree (Chionanthus), mountain ash (Sorbus), and large forms of serviceberry (Amelanchier). Skip Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), once planted for birds. It is now an invasive tree that has become a serious weed in pastures and other open ground, and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania list it as invasive.
Large Shrubs
Large shrubs can be used in the rear positions on small properties, especially when little depth is available.
Siebold’s viburnum (Viburnum sieboldii) was once suggested for birds, but it is now considered invasive. Birds spread its abundant fruit, and Pennsylvania lists it as an invasive plant. Choose a native viburnum instead, such as nannyberry (Viburnum lentago) or blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium).
Other choices are the native pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) and the Manchu cherry (Prunus tomentosa). Do not plant the buckthorns, such as Rhamnus davurica and R. cathartica (common buckthorn). Birds eat their fruit and spread the seeds into woods, where they form dense thickets that crowd out native plants. Common buckthorn is a Restricted Noxious Weed in Minnesota and a restricted invasive species in Wisconsin.
Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) can be considered in the South. Skip glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum): it is now an invasive tree. Birds eat its fruit and spread its copious seeds into natural areas, and Florida ranks it a Category 1 invasive plant. UF/IFAS says not to plant it. For a native evergreen, try bayberry (Myrica), below.
Study the native materials in the area and exotics growing in nearby gardens before making final selections.
Barberries and Honeysuckles
Several blueberries (Vaccinium), huckleberries (Gaylussacia), any of the hollies (Ilex), and the shrubby St. John’s Worts (Hypericum) are useful.
Growing naturally near the seashore, but of value also inland, is the bayberry (Myrica). For deep shade, some viburnums will be useful.
Dogwoods can stand light shade, but the others mentioned need full sun. Where they can be legally grown, the barberries (Berberis) and holly grapes (Mahonia) are good plants to use.
Japanese barberry (B. thunbergii) was once planted for its bright red fruits, which usually persist through the winter, but it is no longer recommended. It is now an invasive shrub that forms dense, prickly thickets that crowd out native plants, and it is thought to harbor the black-legged ticks that spread Lyme disease. Pennsylvania has banned its sale and cultivation. For red winter berries that feed birds, plant native winterberry (Ilex verticillata) instead. Plant one male winterberry within 50 feet of the female plants so they set fruit.
Avoid the Eurasian bush honeysuckles (Lonicera), such as Tatarian honeysuckle. Birds eat their berries and drop the seeds, which is how these shrubs have spread into woods and fields, where they form dense thickets that crowd out native plants. Tatarian honeysuckle is listed as a noxious weed in several states. Choose native shrubs instead, such as serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea), black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) or winterberry (Ilex verticillata).
Flowering Plants With Seeds
Among flowering plants that provide seeds birds like to eat, the sunflower is widely known.
Gardeners can now obtain medium-height, branching forms with highly decorative flowers. The cornflower group (Centaurea) is good, both annual and perennial.
Cosmos and zinnia are useful also, the small blooming zinnias being more favored.
Attracting Hummingbirds
With sunflowers in the garden, you can count on goldfinches and chickadees from mid-summer to late fall.
Any member of Compositae, the daisy family, is potentially bird food. Gardening for the hummingbird should not be overlooked.
The flowers they visit are legion. Try to learn their favorites in your section of the country.
Red and blue seem to be the hummingbird’s preferred colors. This entire field is still poorly studied, so gardeners can help by making their experiences known.
Mulching
When you paint a picture with living plants for beauty and birds, you are duplicating what is found in nature. Therefore, mulch with leaves if possible. This will also keep maintenance chores at a minimum.
Your endeavors will create a pleasing environment for the birds and you.
44659 by Edwin A. Mason