Bird Friendly Yards Blog

Our bird populations are suffering due to a number of human-driven factors. The good news is that if we caused it, we can correct it. Below are hope-filled ways you can help and attract birds in your yard and neighborhood. You can make a tremendous difference for our distressed birds and be an example to others who want to help, but don’t know what to do.

Birds are very much like us in what they need to thrive. A safe environment, food, shelter, water, and community. We all do better when birds do better.

Safe Environment

Insects are A major food group for some birds. They’re either killed or become toxic by pesticides, especially by neonicotinoids (neo-nics), also called neo-nics. Neo-nics are a type of pesticide that, when applied to the plant, is actually taken into the plant’s tissues. From pollen to root, the entire plant carries pesticide. Any insect, bee, or pollinator is subjected to a toxic dose, which kills or sickens the insect. Birds that eat the insect either get a toxic meal or see their food supply die off, which results in toxic starvation. Neo-nics are used in ornamental landscapes and agriculture and cause a lot of damage to insects and birds.

There are plenty of other toxic landscaping products that either harm birds or their food and water supply. Synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides are all designed to kill. Lawns especially are bad for birds. There is no habitat or food, and the water is contaminated with toxic runoff.

The good news is that this can be corrected! Go organic! Say no to neo-nics! Shrink the size of your lawn with native gardens, using Plant species that help insects and birds.

Food

Birds need to eat, and they need shelter and nesting materials. These needs are best supplied with native plant species habitats.

Natural bird food comes in 4 forms: Seeds, fruit, insects, and nectar. There are plants that provide these foods, but you need a great diversity of plant species to supply enough of these foods all season long and through the winter. The goal is to have several species in bloom at all times of the season and provide winter food sources. This informational PDF outlines good species to plant for many bird species.

There are layers of planting you can do that will greatly benefit birds. Plant an oak tree, a prairie, a small native garden, or some fruiting shrubs like serviceberry. You don’t need to be the entire grocery store; just have some items on the shopping list. Encourage friends, neighbors, municipalities, businesses, and institutions to plant native plants, shrubs, and trees. Your community can become a community for birds.

Find an area of your yard, lawn, woods, or old landscaping that you would like to make more beautiful, and plant beneficial native plants, shrubs or trees. This can eliminate an area that is difficult to maintain and create an oasis for our feathered friends.

Shelter

Everything and everyone needs shelter from weather, predators, and the harsh natural world. A quick spot to wait out the storm, a sturdy branch to place a nest, cover for a long winter, and shady places to beat the heat all provide much-needed shelter. Again, diversity is the solution for a very real and large shelter problem facing birds in the human landscape.

We have all seen bird nests in trees and shrubs. Having plants like grasses or fluffy seed heads like milkweed and cattails provides nest-building materials as well as cover for grassland bird species. Equally important is having dense shrubs like dogwood to provide protected nest-building sites that are safe from weather and predators.

We have some native cedar shrubs in our yard that house many species of birds throughout the winter. There are generations of cardinals that call these shrubs home. On sunny winter days, the dark green foliage heats up to many degrees warmer than the surrounding areas. Coupling this heat with the windbreaking ability of the evergreen, you get a cozy spot to shelter from the winter cold. Many native evergreens also provide sturdy branches for nest foundations, so there are abundant reasons for planting these beneficial shrubs and trees.

Water

Native plants, shrubs and trees are naturals at holding water in soil and making it accessible, as dew and tiny shaded puddles, and even in their leaves (this doesn’t make sense to me). Our birds are very aware that dew forms on the tops and undersides of leaves and provides a great place to stop off for a “cold one”. Remember that these are small creatures and they don’t need much water or food in order to thrive.

There are plants like cup plant that collect and hold rain and dew and provide valuable water for many species. Aphids love cup plant, and they collect on the underside of the top leaves where ladybugs forage for a nice meal of aphids. Birds will eat ladybugs, which are bitter and not that appealing, but often get gobbled up as birds fly by in a hurry. The early bird may get the worm, but the hurried bird gets the nasty-tasting ladybug. I just made that up, but I’m sure it will catch on.

Pooling rain and irrigation water provides needed hydration as do bird baths and plugged roof gutters. At times I have created water-holding pools at the end of downspouts with just a plastic container dug in and partially filled with rocks to provide a zero-depth entry for small pollinators. This shallow pool will also serve mosquitoes, so you may want to flush it with hose water occasionally to remove larvae.

Squirrels will love the supplemental water and may actually leave your tomatoes alone, which they treat as personal canteens when water is scarce. I’m convinced that squirrels get more tomatoes than I do in dry years. The whole backyard wildlife community needs water, and they are creative when foraging for it. Your yard can be the yard where everyone goes for a drink.

Community

The mandatory ingredient for a true community is diversity. Diversity in plants, water sources, shelter types and construction materials, and organic management techniques will attract a diversity of wildlife; some to eat and others to be eaten. Standing drinking water helps mosquitoes breed, and swallows eat mosquitoes. The whole backyard ecosystem is intricately interconnected. One of the benefits of creating a diverse community in your yard (and neighborhood) is the opportunity to observe firsthand the different species using the oasis you create.

Another benefit of this habitat creation and protection is the opportunity to create community with like-minded people through conversations with passersby and involvement in conservation organizations like Wild Ones, Alt Lawns, Xerces Society, Audubon, Metro Blooms, and local Watershed Districts. There is something deeply encouraging and fun about working together as a community towards a common goal of regenerating a backyard eco-system that helps us all. There is no better place to start than by making your yard more bird-friendly.

Contact me if you want to create a diverse eco-system in your yard that will restore habitat for birds. It will make a difference and be loads of fun!

RESOURCES:

Wild Ones https://wildones.org/

Alt Lawns https://www.facebook.com/groups/altlawns

Xerces Society https://www.xerces.org/

Audubon https://www.audubon.org/

Metro Blooms https://metroblooms.org/

Find Your Local Watershed District https://bwsr.state.mn.us/watershed-districts