Birds are attracted to the homes of many area residents during winter when feeders are set out.
Birds also can be drawn to homes with backyards featuring elements of the natural landscape which are needed to support their lives. These can be food, nesting sites, shelter, protection from predators and water.
Birds look for natural foods all year round, although commercial feed can be a supplement. Seeds, berries, fruits, nuts, sap and nectar are foods sought by birds in forest and meadow and around our properties. Beneficial plants, attractive to insects, are sources of protein and thus part of well-rounded diets for birds. Insects are especially important early in the year when the breeding season is at its height. Babies must be fed and, for many species, bugs are important. One common visitor, the chickadee, is quite fond of caterpillars which are an early stage in the life of many pests. This is all to the good, is it not?
The usual landscape around many houses is made up of lawns and, in the beds, exotic, or non-native, plants. Birds really need for their existence the plants which are part of their habitat in the wild. We cannot create a natural landscape but we can make an effort to come close. Begin by selecting species native to this part of the continent which means around the Great Lakes. Trees, especially evergreens, are central. They can provide cover and foods. Deciduous trees provide nesting sites, summer cover and foods. Species usually grown here are eastern white pine, white spruce, white birch, hemlock, the oaks, cherries, black walnut, maples and white cedar. American yew, butterfly bush, the dogwoods, winterberry holly, roses, American elder, Virginia creeper, wild grape and trumpet creeper, all are recommended shrubs and vines.
It takers many years for a forest type tree to reach full size. In the suburbs, built in recent decades, a variety of trees can be found planted by the landscapers. Because trees like maples or oaks are not growing in woodlands they have room to branch out. A fast-growing tree like white birch can reach a good height fairly quickly. Trees and shrubs with food for birds include oaks, butternuts, rowan or mountain ash, serviceberries, crabapples, hawthorns, pin and black cherries, staghorn sumac and nannyberry. Cover can be provided by white cedar, the common junipers, the dogwoods, roses and honeysuckle.
Once you have decided to landscape for birds it is useful to make a plan. Of course, you will want to have space for flower beds to brighten up the landscape but part of your property can be then given over to the trees and shrubs which will provide the food, shelter, nesting sites and so forth. Grouping the plants together in corners or along the sides of the yard can give what you need and likely will be attractive in season with blooms and berries.
Space under the taller plants may be found for native flowering plants. Trilliums and like plants can be found in garden centres more frequently now. Quite a number of the common flowers sold by retailers are actually native like phlox, coreopsis and black-eyed Susan.
Denzil Sawyer is a freelance writer and Master Gardener.