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| ATTRACT BIRDS WITH FOOD |
| The Backyard Corner |
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One of the best ways to attract birds is to do it naturally. You might already have some trees, shrubs, and vines in your yard that yield food in the way of nuts, seeds or berries that many birds dine on. Two of the more common food bearing trees include the Oak which provides acorns (nuts), and the Pine that provides cones which contain seeds. Acorns are relished by many birds, including Blue Jays and Nuthatches. Pine seeds attract Chickadees and Titmice. Other food bearing trees include Chestnut, Walnut, Red Cedar, Mulberry, Dogwood and Juniper. Trees also attract insects either to their flowers, or by providing cracks and crevices where insects lay their eggs. This in turn might attract Warblers to your yard gleaning insects off the leaves. Some common shrubs that produce berries include Bush Honeysuckle, Blueberries, Virburnums, Dogwood (low growing) and Holly. In the spring and fall when insects aren't as plentiful, berry producing shrubs are welcomed by Mockingbirds, Catbirds, Robins and many others. Maybe you'd like some vines for that trellis you bought years ago. Honeysuckle, Trumpet vine, Wild Grape and American Bittersweet are good choices. In the winter when everything is cold and bleak, I've seen flocks of Robins, or a Red-bellied Woodpecker, dining on the berries of American Bittersweet vines. |
| If you have a small yard without many well established trees and shrubs, you can still attract birds by planting things such as Sunflowers, Black-eyed Susan's, Zinnias and Purple Cone flowers. Nothing is quite as pretty as watching a summer Goldfinch eating seeds while balancing on the top of a coneflower (or Zinnia). Maybe you’d like to attract Hummingbirds. Trumpet Honeysuckle, Columbine, Bee Balm, and Fuschia are all good nectar producers. If you’re not worried about a few weeds, leave a nice sized patch of ground somewhere out of the way where you don’t mow, and native sparrows will line up to eat the weed seeds. Are you tired of raking all those leaves up in the fall? Then leave some on the ground for a change. Insects are attracted to leaf litter, and you’ll be feeding a lot birds by leaving them right where they are. |
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| One of my favorite ways to attract birds to my yard is to add a supplemental food source such as bird feeders. There’s a vast assortment of commercial bird feeders to choose from, but the birds won’t care if you’ve bought it, or you made it, as long as it dispenses some kind of seed or food that they’re interested in. The most common feeder types include Platform, Hopper, and Tube. Each type appeals to different species, but all attract birds of some kind. There’s also many types of seed and other food that you can put out in your bird feeder, but if you want to keep it simple, stick with a mainstay seed such as Black Oil Sunflower. This seed is probably the most preferred by the seed eating birds in your yard. If putting out a feeder is what you’d like to do, there’s further information in the article “Seeds, Suet, and Feeders” on the Backyard Corner page. |
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| Wild Grapes |