Landscaping That's for the Birds
![Winterberries](/globalassets/articles/gardening/content/5635-ilex.jpg?$staticlink$)
Birdfeeders aren't the only tools for attracting birds. By choosing the right trees, shrubs and perennials, you can create a habitat that will support birds year-round.
- Conifers provide winter shelter and summer nesting sites. Some also provide sap, buds and seeds.
- Grasses and legumes provide cover for ground-nesting birds if the area is not mowed during the nesting season.
- Native perennials, such as coneflower and aster, provide much-needed seeds if the flowers are not dead-headed and the plants are allowed to go to seed.
- Nectar-producing plants attract hummingbirds and orioles. Hummingbirds especially like tubular red flowers, such as fuchsia, bee balm, coral bells and penstemon.
- Summer-fruiting plants include cherry, honeysuckle, raspberry, serviceberry, grape and plum. Birds attracted include brown thrashers, robins, thrushes, waxwings, woodpeckers, orioles, cardinals, towhees and grosbeaks.
- Fall-fruiting plants include dogwoods, mountain ash, winterberries and cotoneasters. They are used by both migratory birds preparing to leave and non-migratory species preparing for winter.
- Many winter-fruiting plants are not palatable until they have frozen and thawed numerous times. These include glossy black chokecherry, Siberian crabapple, snowberry, bittersweet, sumac and Virginia creeper.
- Nut and acorn plants provide food and nesting habitat. They include oaks, hickories, buckeyes, chestnuts, butternuts and walnuts. Broken nuts and acorns.
- Standing dead snags (as long as they are not posing a hazard to a structure or utility line) and holes in trees offer excellent nesting cavities for birds. Many dead tree limbs are full of insects that are important food sources for woodpeckers.
![coneflowerheads](/contentassets/37e6e4007cdf4777885d45a56c6546b6/imagek2l2q.png)
With the guidance of Charlie Nardozzi, we convert a patch of lawn to a no-dig bed full of colorful native plants that will support birds year-round.
Last updated: 03/08/2024
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