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Attract Beautiful Birds to your Backyard

© Mary M. Alward

So, you'd like to attract wild birds to your backyard in order to enjoy flashes of color and their beautiful songs? There are many things you and your parents can do to make birds feel welcome in your yard.

Plants:

Ask your parents to purchase and help you plant ornamental grasses. These provide ground cover for birds that nest on the ground. They need to be planted in the corner of your yard or in an edged flower bed, so they are never mowed. Choose grasses that produce seed for the birds to feast on.

Fruit-bearing plants:

Plants that bear fruit in different seasons are perfect for attracting birds to your yard all year long. Blueberries, currents, grapes, raspberries and strawberries are summer fruit bearers.

In fall, birds will enjoy the fruit of mountain ash, winter berries and dogwood. These foods help migratory birds prepare for their long trip south.

Many birds stay around during the harsh winter months. If your backyard space allows, ask your parents if you can plant a nut bearing tree such as a chestnut, oak or walnut. Birds feast on the meat of the nuts that these trees produce. Bluejays, cedar waxwings, chickadees and cardinals will feel right at home in your yard if they find lots of food.

Feeding the Birds:

Tube feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds will attract chickadees, goldfinches, titmice and woodpeckers.

A nectar feeder will be visited by hummingbirds, finches, orioles and tangers.

Cut up bananas, grapefruit, pineapple, pears and grapes, place them on a shallow dish or pan and set it where the birds can feast on the fruit. Soon the tray will be visited by bluebirds, mockingbirds, orioles, woodpeckers, thrushes and cedar waxwing.

Millet will draw juncos, doves sparrows and thrushes, but if you want to invite pheasants, juncos, bobwhite, jays and doves to your yard, place corn on a platform feeder. Niger (thistle seed) will draw purple finch, redpoll, pine siskins and dark-eyed juncos.

Bird Feeders and Birdhouses:

Ask your parents to help your choose a couple of birdhouses and at least two types of bird feeders to have in your yard. Different types of birds, as you just learned, like different types of food. Set out a selection of at least two different birdseeds and a platter of fruit.

Different bird species also use different types of birdhouses for nesting. Ask an adult to help you make a platform feeder and then chose a nectar feeder or another type for a different species of bird.

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