Birds Bring The Garden Color And Song

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 (Morns), hawthorns (Crataegus), Fringetree (Chionanthus), Russian olive (Elaeagnus Angustifolia), mountain ash (Sorbs), and large forms of serviceberry (Amelanchier).

Large Shrubs

Large shrubs can be used in the rear positions on small properties, especially when little depth is available.

Siebold’s viburnum is a good choice for birds. It’s handsome in flower and fruit and grows to 30′ feet. 

Other choices are the buckthorns, especially Rhamnus davurica and R. cathartica, the pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), and the Manchu cherry (Primus tomentosa). 

Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) and glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) can be considered in the South.

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.

Because its decorative, bright red fruits usually persist through the winter, Japanese barberry (B. thunbergii) is often a life-saver for birds that return to be caught by a brief return of winter weather. This plant is unsurpassed as a barrier hedge plant and for nesting sites. 

The bush honeysuckles (Lonicera) can be grown practically anywhere in the country, stand high as bird food plants, and are suitable for landscaping homes or public areas. For best results, use nursery-grown stock.

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