Creating Shelter for Birds
Trees, Shrubs, Brush Piles, and Boxes Provide Year-Round Shelter for Birds
Bird shelter, such as trees, brush piles and nesting boxes, adds warm, dry, safe refuges to your backyard bird habitat.
If you want to create backyard bird habitat that will attract birds to your property, you should think about providing some good shelter for birds. Birds need shelter from the weather - heavy rain or snow, extreme cold or heat, and high winds. Shelter for birds also means giving them a place to hide from predators, and providing good nesting sites. What you can do depends on what kind of property you have.
The best thing you can have for good backyard bird habitat is lots of trees and bushes. Tall hardwood trees provide a breezy dappled shade on hot sunny days, and a canopy of leaves to hold of the worst off the rain on rainy days. Bushy evergreens, on the other hand, make a warm bird shelter on cold winter days and nights. Beneath the spreading boughs of evergreen trees, the snow doesn't pile up as high, and birds can often find food even in midwinter. Thick bushes and shrubs are a good shelter for birds when predators are around, and if the bushes are producing berries that the birds can eat, so much the better.
A stand of mixed tree species will provide all of these kinds of bird shelter, and a row of trees growing where they will break the worst of the prevailing winds will create a sheltered lee for birds as well. This is a good place to hang a bird feeder, but take care to position it away from any shrubs or low branches that might shelter a hunting cat! The trees will also provide some protection for small feeding birds from the searching eyes of birds of prey.
If you have no trees on your property, don't despair: you can still provide some shelter for birds. If you have a quiet corner, you can create a brush pile by just piling up smaller tree branches and woody plants. Heap them loosely so the pile has air cavities within it, and wait to see if you spot anything coming in and out. Some birds may even nest in there. Other creatures, such as squirrels and toads, may take advantage of your bird shelter too.
If you want to provide good nesting sites, do some research to discover what species of birds nest regularly in your area, and direct your backyard bird habitat efforts at those species. Find out what type of nesting box they prefer and figure out whether you can provide it. Pay attention to where the box should be located, how high off the ground it should be, how large the entrance hole should be, and which direction the hole should face. If you get the details right, you may attract the bird you want. Then again, you may attract something else altogether.
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