Gardening for the birds
How to rethink your garden for wildlife habitat
Creating a bird-friendly yard isn’t about manicured perfection. It’s about providing the food, shelter, water and safe spaces that birds want and need. Luckily, the most powerful changes homeowners can make are often simple and easy—and they don’t have to be expensive, either.
Plant native species, take a more relaxed approach to yard tidiness, add a clean water source and supplement habitat with carefully chosen feeders, if you like. Those small efforts can have a surprisingly big payoff in drawing both resident and migratory birds to your property, from juncos to waxwings, orioles to rose-breasted grosbeaks, a wide range of woodpeckers and more.
But before you start buying plants, spend time observing your yard, suggests Alicia Bosela, who owns Ironweed Native Plant Nursery in Waddy. Notice where and when the sun shines, as well as how water drains from your yard. Mapping sunlight patterns, moisture and drainage can help ensure that new plants will thrive and support birds and the insects they eat.
Bugs are features
It might seem counterintuitive to invite insects and caterpillars into your garden, but that’s the best way to attract and keep an abundance of birds. “Around 98% of our songbirds feed their young insects, especially caterpillars,” says Michael Patton, an avian biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. “They’re not feeding berries or seeds. So a huge thing for providing food for birds is actually providing habitat for insects.”
Native plants support far more insects than non-native ornamentals. Prioritize Kentucky flowering natives like rose milkweed (also known as swamp milkweed), which grows well across the state. Bosela recommends white wild indigo for Western Kentucky, hairy beardtongue for central areas, and purple coneflower for Eastern Kentucky. All are food sources for the insects that birds eat, helping build a healthy food web right in your yard. By contrast, yards with turf grass and non-native plants and trees might look lush and healthy to us, but they’ll look like deserts to insects and birds that are looking for a place to call home.
“If our native insects don’t have food, our native birds don’t have food,” Bosela says. “The population-limiting factor is groceries—it’s as simple as that.”
A white-breasted nuthatch perches on a suet feeder. Photo: Mary Hammel/Unsplash
All-season approach
Spring breeding season is a critical time for birds as they seek to feed their young, but ideally you want your yard to support birds all year.
“Every species of bird has its own specific dietary needs, and there are about 350 different species of birds that have been recorded in Kentucky,” says Lisa Hoffman, park naturalist at John James Audubon State Park in Henderson. “If they’re relying on our insect population, when that dwindles in the wintertime, a lot of those birds are migrants—they’re going to leave and travel to the tropics, where they can find bugs year-round. Other birds rely on insects for their protein and fat in the warmer months, then seasonally switch: in the winter, they’re going to go after fruits, berries and seeds that the plants have produced. So as long as you’re trying to provide some things in both directions for your yard, then you’re probably going to attract a wider variety of birds.”
Hoffman recommends a layered approach, using flowering native plants, berry-producing shrubs and trees that can create food sources for every season. Native shrubs and trees that produce a lot of berries are especially valuable to birds, Hoffman notes. “American holly trees, for instance—you can watch a flock of 50 robins descend on your yard, pick out every holly berry, and move on to the next,” she says.
In addition to flowering and northern dogwoods and the American holly, other reliable Kentucky natives that can create a rich smorgasbord include spicebush, juniper, black-eyed Susans, native grasses, and mulberry and persimmon trees. “American holly, spicebush and chokeberry can provide those nice red berries in winter, and the birds evolved with them,” Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources’ Patton says. “They’re really good for the birds, full of fats, and they’re not toxic to them.”
Be aware that some non-native ornamental favorites can be toxic to some birds. One notable example: nandina (also known as heavenly or sacred bamboo), which have alluring red berries that can sicken and kill cedar waxwings that gorge on them.
Another non-native, bush honeysuckle, has a high sugar content instead of the fats birds need. “So it’s not providing the proper nutrition they need, especially for birds migrating through the state,” Patton says. “It’s like filling up on junk food without giving them the energy they really need for long flights as they migrate down to the Southern U.S. or Central or South America. It’s better to have fruiting trees and shrubs that are high in fat, and those tend to be our native plants.”
Even a single tree choice matters. “If you plant a sugar maple, you will support well over 150 different species of native insects that you would not support with a Norway maple,” Bosela notes.
White wild indigo is a beneficial native plant. Photo: Erin Hoagland
Food and water
Features like water sources (think bubble rocks or a birdbath) and feeders can also make your yard more attractive to birds. But it’s vital to clean and disinfect birdbaths and most feeders in a 10% bleach solution at least every two weeks to help prevent disease, Patton advises. He also recommends cleaning hummingbird feeders every three to five days.
Water sources, in particular, appeal to birds. “Having a birdbath, especially one with a heating element that prevents it from freezing in winter, really helps birds,” says Nic Patton of Wild Birds Unlimited in Lexington. “They need access to water not just for drinking, but also for bathing to keep their feathers clean. That allows them to fluff up and create that layer of insulation.”
For feeders, he recommends opting for high-quality ingredients like sunflower and safflower seeds and peanuts, and avoiding seed that’s mostly milo, cracked corn or ingredients vaguely labeled as “grain products.” Positioning your feeder 15-20 feet from a sheltered area like a shrub or tree can offer some protection for birds, “but you don’t want it right up against a bush or tree, because then predators like cats can hide in the bushes and get the birds while they’re feeding,” he explains. “If you have squirrel issues, place your feeder about 8-10 feet from any other structures, and you also can use a baffle to prevent access to the feeder.”
Feeders can help supplement their diets throughout the year, but birds will still seek food elsewhere in your yard to satisfy their nutritional needs. “At certain times of the year, birds can lose up to 80% of their body weight overnight, and they have to replace that during the daytime—their metabolisms are that much higher than ours,” Nic Patton says.
Monarch butterfly perches on rose milkweed. Photo: Erin Hoagland
Mow less, smile more
Luckily, one of the most effective—and easiest—ways to make your yard bird friendly is simply to mow less and leave autumn leaves, which shelter insect eggs and larvae, on the ground. Even a modest patch or narrow strip of unmown native plants or unraked leaves can help, avian biologist Patton says.
“If you start having more ‘wilded’ backyards, you might be surprised at what might come into your yard,” he says. “During spring and fall migration, there’s a cacophony of different warbler species that’ll use our somewhat urban landscapes and glean insects that are in the trees. Personally, I’ve had things like blackpoll warblers and Blackburnian warblers in my backyard, and northern or Louisiana waterthrushes. If you have a lot of caterpillars, you might have a yellow-billed cuckoo coming to your yard.”
Think about how these birds have evolved over millions of years in these landscapes, he adds: “By creating kind of pristine yards, we’re making it so that these birds are no longer in the environments that they evolved to be in. So by allowing those environments to kind of come back to what they’re used to, we’re going to provide everything the birds need.”
