Backyards going to the birds…that’s a good thing! An increasing movement for homeowners is to design a backyard to sustain wildlife other than plants. Plants are beautiful, and can definitely spruce up your backyard, but they don’t move, birds will energize your backyard and create a sense of activity that pants alone can not.
Bird feeders alone will not achieve a desired bird oasis. There are few simple features the birds need in order for your yard to be treated as a home.
1. Food
There are four basic food groups for birds, Nectar, Seeds, Berries, and Bugs. There are several berry plants that are easy to grow and many native, that both birds and people love. You can find wild blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, and many more that grow in almost many climates around the world. Some other berries that birds love are service berries, hawthorns, mountain ash, crabapple, and dogwoods. You can easily purchase seeds from a sore, but can also be provided to the birds by planting flowering perennials, including your grass. Grass seed is a favorite during the winter months when food is scarce. To attract butterflies and humming birds you will need to plant nectar producing flowers. Nectar rich flowers are easily identified by thier brightly colored flowers with a trumpet shape. A few examples would be honeysuckle, salvia, jasmine, trumpet vine, fuchsia and many more. You should supplement their feed with bird feeders and nectar feeders all year long, but it is very important to keep it filled in the winter months. Bugs are a huge source of food for birds, stop with the pesticides! Birds like Purple Martins, can significantly reduce the number of bugs in a yard. Not only are pesticides potentially harmful to the environment and your family, they take away a good food source for other living things.
2. Water
Don’t forget the water. They use it to drink, bathe and play. In order to have the bird oasis in your backyard you have to have
some source of water, it can be a simple bird bath, a pond, fountain or even a reoccurring puddle. They prefer shallow water so they can stand and splash their wings around to bathe. Not only will they be cleaner happier and enjoy the play, you will enjoy every minute you spend watching them in the water.
3. Safety
Finally birds need a safe place to hang their feathers and raise a family. Many backyards don’t have the specific qualifications to house birds naturally. This is why our once common song birds such as bluebirds’ numbers are diminishing. People don’t realize that their subdivision use to house many birds and now dead trees are removed and landscaping replaced it is not conducive for birds to live. All is not lost though… you can give nature a hand by providing them with a home with birdhouses. There are some great bird house plans, kits and prefabricated birdhouses available to provide shelter.
Add just a few essentials, and you can make your backyard more enchanting for you and the wildlife it attracts. All backyards, small and big have enough room to share with a few birds!
