How to Attract Wild Birds to Your Yard

Plants, Nesting Sites, Feeders, and Water Build Bird Habitat

Nov 13, 2008 Rosemary Drisdelle

The way to attract birds to your yard is to provide them with everything they need: food and water, shelter from weather and predators, a place to nest, a dust bath.

An ideal property for bird watching includes a large area with both open space and mixed woodland, islands of natural vegetation, a pond, stream or marsh, old dead trees, berry bushes, cone and nut producing trees, wildflowers, a bird feeding station and a lake or ocean nearby. Most properties don’t provide all this, but anyone with a yard can make changes to attract more birds.

Provide Natural Food for Birds With Native Plants

Trees, shrubs, and wildflowers all produce food for birds: nuts, berries, cones, seeds, nectar, and even insects. When plants native to the region are used, they attract native insects and, in turn, native birds. There are many ways to include native plants and food sources in your landscape:

• Replant your water- and chemical-hungry lawn with a native ground cover.
• Allow part of your yard to go wild and let wildflowers go to seed.
• Start a compost pile. Leave it uncovered and turn it frequently to expose worms and insects.
• Plant trees and shrubs that produce berries, nuts, and cones.
• Let leaves gather under trees and shrubs. Foraging birds will find worms, insects, snails, and other small animals there.
• Leave dead trees standing (trim them if necessary for safety). They will support vast numbers of small organisms.

Create a Feeding Station

Some bird species will visit a seed or suet feeder or eat offered fruit, including chickadees, finches, sparrows, bluebirds, grosbeaks, jays, larks, tanagers and many others. A feeding station might include seed feeders containing sunflower seed, a songbird mix, and niger seed; a suet feeder; a tray for fruit and other larger items; and an open area where seed can be scattered for ground feeding birds. When situating a feeding station, consider not only bird preferences but also accessibility for cats, squirrels, raccoons etc.

Clean feeders regularly to avoid spreading diseases.

Add or Maintain a Variety of Plants

Birds obtain food from plants, but they also get nesting sites, shelter from weather and predators, roosting sites, and habitat. Nurturing plants of varied heights and leaf types supports different bird species. Plant groupings surrounded by open space to create transition zones that birds love. If possible, leave dead trees alone for cavity nesting birds. Enhance the natural habitat with other features:

• Provide nesting boxes. (Pay attention to the specific needs of local bird species and clean annually.)
• Build a brush pile for birds to hide in.
• In the winter, roosting boxes give birds a snug place to spend the night.
• Create a dust bath and leave ant hills alone for anting, and if you don’t have open water, install a bird bath.
• Offer nesting materials such as hair, fur, feathers, flowers, dried grass, twigs, yarn, string etc.

If you succeed in attracting a variety of birds to your yard, they’ll provide you with easy bird watching, while helping to control harmful insects, weed seeds and rodents.

You can find more specific information about things mentioned in this article by following links in the blog post Creating Habitat for Garden Birds.

Sources:

Attracting Birds. Woodier, Olwen. Pownal, Vermont: Garden Way Publishing, 1981.

"Close Encounters of the Bird Kind." Wild About Gardening. Canadian Wildlife Federation.

"The Best Ways to Attract More Songbirds to Your Property." Kress, Steven W. Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds

The copyright of the article How to Attract Wild Birds to Your Yard in Birds is owned by Rosemary Drisdelle. Permission to republish How to Attract Wild Birds to Your Yard in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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