Home Landscaping to Attract Birds
Time
Budget
Skill
★ ★ ★It is very easy to attract birds to your home landscape if you follow a few basic principles.
Birds need more than food:
Shelter: areas for protection, nesting, and resting
Create a landscape with multi-layers: tall trees, medium trees, large shrubs, smaller shrubs, perennials, and ground covers (see photos)
Water: bird baths, fountains, ponds, etc.
Water is actually more important than food for birds, without a water source, birds won’t seek your food
Food: plants that produce nectar, fruit and seeds that birds like to eat
Feeders are OK, but birds love to forage from the plants you grow
Plan your landscape to include plants of differing heights and layers.
Choose plants that offer up fruit, nectar and seeds (see list below).
List of recommended Plants:
- Oaks, maples and other large trees
- White Oak
- Flowering Dogwood
- Kousa Dogwood
- American Beautyberry
- Viburnum
- Winterberry
- Black Eyed Susan
- Verbena on a “Stick”
- Purple Cone Flowers
Place water source in open location near plants where birds can rest and nest