Polk County Master Gardeners
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For the Birds
One of my goals in gardening is to create a space that will be
irresistible to birds - or at least entice them to pause a day or so on their way
north or south. So when choosing plants to add to my yard, I try always to
“think birds.”
Their needs are primarily food (fruit, seeds, tender buds and flowers,
insects) and cover. The trick is to find the things that will please the birds
without creating problems for your garden.
Hollies provide berries that the birds love and their dense foliage provides
a place to hide from the neighbor’s cats and the occasional hawk.
Fruit of many varieties please birds. Red mulberry makes a mess in the yard,
so plant it where you won’t be walking, but passing warblers love it.
Blueberries, persimmon, plums, and any other fruit you don’t mind sharing will
bring visitors. (They don’t object to the ones you DO mind sharing, so sometimes
you have to decide which you want most: more plum preserves or more birds.)
Some of our native trees like oaks, dogwood, sweetgum, and juniper are very
attractive to birds as well as giving shade or color.
Honeysuckle (not the Japanese variety which tends to take over everything)
and many trumpet-shaped flowers are especially good for hummingbirds. Finches
love coreopsis, purple coneflowers, and common sunflowers.
If you want to attract birds before the plants are ready, feeders are just
the thing. I have hooks on the eaves of my house outside windows where I hang
nectar feeders in the summer and thistle-seed bags in the winter. Most of the
year I can watch hummingbirds or finches during breakfast and lunch.
I’ve found that safflower seeds in a tray attached to a window with suction
cups brings chickadees and titmice who pick up a seed, perch on the edge of the
tray, and pound away with their beaks to break open the seed. First time this
happened, I thought someone was knocking at the door. Safflower seeds have the
added attraction of being the one seed I have found that squirrels turn up their
noses at.
Because if you decide to feed the birds, that’s your next challenge:
squirrels are clever, inquisitive, and voracious. I’m still trying to find ways
to feed them enough corn to keep them out of the expensive sunflower and thistle
seeds.
By Barbara M. Tobias
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