By Kellie Docherty | Medina Soil & Water Conservation District
Bird watching is the most popular wildlife watching hobby. If you’re like me and many others, you enjoy watching birds in your yard or at your local parks. If you want these feathered friends to visit you, it’s helpful to create the right backyard habitat for them.
Why birds
Bird populations have been declining dramatically; not only migrating birds but permanent resident birds have as well. This is in a large part due to loss of habitat and food resources from human development. If you have the space, dedicating some area of your yard for the birds by improving habitat for them will attract them to your yard for your viewing pleasure.
Birds aren’t just nice to watch. They can also provide services for you. If you find yourself swatting away gnats and other bugs while sitting outside, attracting insect-eating birds will help reduce the amount of insects around your property.
A tree swallow can eat up to 2,000 insects a day and catch up to 6,000 insects a day during nesting season. Do you have garden pests? Birds like house wrens can take care of pests that are eating plants in your garden. Help the birds, and they’ll help you.
Plants
The first thing you should do is start with the basics. What kind of sunlight does your yard get? What is the moisture level? These questions will help determine what plants to put in your yard.
When creating a garden for birds, it’s all about which plants you’re putting in your gardens and around your house. It’s important to pick plants that are native to this region of Ohio. Birds have become adapted to look for and eat from plants that are native, so planting them in your yard will make your yard more attractive.
Certain native plants can bring different species of birds. Planting serviceberry, flowering dogwood or chokeberry will attract birds that eat berries. Birds like cedar waxwing, warblers, orioles and many others will enjoy eating berries off the plants in your yard.
If you’re looking to attract birds like goldfinches, chickadees, or white-throated sparrows, you’ll need to plant natives that produce nutritious seed like purple coneflower, mountain mint or New England aster.
If you want to help support birds nesting on your property, you’ll have to also consider growing plants that attract insects and pollinators. When a bird is raising a nest of baby birds, they usually use insects to feed their young, because baby birds don’t eat seeds. They like to eat softer insects like caterpillars.
Oak trees, black cherry, and American plum can invite hundreds of caterpillars. You wouldn’t ever know, because they’re hiding in the trees. Caterpillars are a great food source for birds, and you’ll also be supporting pollinators in the process.
Provide shelter
So you have the flowers, shrubs and trees to attract a greater number of birds. This also serves to create some shelter for them. However, there are ways you can increase the amount of shelter that you provide for birds.
Having conifers in your yard like white pine, eastern arborvitae and red cedar will provide a dense cover for the birds. This helps them feel safe from predators and, for some birds, provide a place to build a nest.
Water
Water is another important element for inviting birds to your yard. This may include birdbaths, streams, ponds or rain gardens. A water resource allows for birds to drink water, cool off, and clean their feathers.
If you decide to have a birdbath, be sure to keep it clean. Empty and refill it at least every five days to keep away mosquitoes and diseases that could harm the birds.
Hobbies like birding and gardening can go hand in hand. If you’d like more birds and have the space, creating a bird garden is a great way to help. By proving resources like food, shelter and water the birds will always come back, and some will even want to stick around.
(Kellie Docherty is the education coordinator at Medina Soil & Water Conservation District. She can be contacted at kdocherty@medinaco.org or 330-722-9321.)
