Backyard Bird Habitats

Lesson 2: Food, Shelter and Water for Backyard Birds

Lesson Two is a new skills lesson that provides you with detailed information about the components of a backyard bird habitat: food, shelter and water. You will learn how to add these features to your own backyard. Our textbook, The Audubon Backyard BirdWatcher, has several chapters on these topics and will supplement the lesson.

Food for Birds

Food – Providing food for birds can be very simple. For example, sunflower seeds can attract up to 44 bird species. To attract a variety of birds; however, it is useful to provide food in a safe manner from several sources throughout the year. These sources may include: commercial bird food; suet; fruit; sugar water; insects in dead trees and logs; flower buds; nectar; seeds, nuts, and berries from deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, vines and ground cover.

Putting out food for birds provides them with a supplement to their natural sources of food as they go about their daily activities and also provides an easy source of fuel when they need it most: for nesting, molting and, for some birds, migrating. These stressful activities occur at different times during the year. Molting occurs when old, worn feathers are replaced after nesting.

Commercial or Homemade - Commercial bird food is available for purchase in just about any store. As mentioned above, sunflower seeds are popular with birds. In fact, page 16 of our textbook, The Audubon Backyard BirdWatcher, states that chickadees consume about 150 sunflower seeds, or equivalent, every day, 250 if there is a severe frost. Other birds attracted to sunflower seeds include: cardinals, sparrows, finches, jays, titmouses, woodpeckers and indigo buntings.

Thistle seed, also common, can attract finches, chickadees and a variety of sparrows. I don’t use bird seed mixes since I have found that the birds will pick out the sunflower seeds and scatter the other seeds onto the ground.

Suet, available commercially packaged or from the meat counter at the supermarket, is a high-energy food used by chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches and wrens. Suet can be purchased mixed with seeds, nuts, berries or peanut butter.

Although providing fruit for birds is too expensive for me, several birds, including robins, orioles, bluebirds, titmouse, nuthatches, woodpeckers, mockingbirds and cedar waxwings eat pieces of oranges, apples, raisins and other fruit.

Sugar water (4 parts water to 1 part sugar) attracts hummingbirds and orioles.

Dead trees and logs, if they can safety remain in your yard, contain insects that can attract birds such as nuthatches and woodpeckers.

Feeders – There are many types of feeders from which to choose: hopper, platform, tray and sugar water feeders, plus a large number of homemade varieties. Some commercial feeders can cost $30-50; however, most cost much less. I just paid $3.82 for a nice thistle feeder to attract gold finches.

A visit to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) web site at http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/tools... shows how to make a feeder from an empty milk carton. If you click on the Contents section at the bottom of that web page, you will find plans for building many types of birdhouses and birdfeeders. I have used old dishes and trays to hold seed and sometimes just scatter it on the surface of snow in the winter (safety away from bird predators like cats!).

The most important things to consider for placement of your feeder(s) are:

Will the seed remain dry in order to prevent clumping and mold from forming?

Is there plant cover nearby, such as trees or shrubs, for safety from predators?

Is the feeder in a quiet area?

Is the feeder in a location that is easy for you to take down for filling and cleaning?

If you have more than one feeder, are they spaced far enough apart to reduce competition and aggressiveness among birds?

Can you easily access the area under the feeder so that spilled seed can be cleaned up to avoid mold and the attraction of unwanted mammals like skunks?

Can you see the feeder, and enjoy the birds, from your house?

Definition – What is a Food Cache? It is a place where a bird has hidden food. This activity mainly occurs in the fall. For example, our textbook, The Audubon Backyard BirdWatcher, describes on page 153 how chickadees wedge food among rough bark and can remember where their caches are for up to four weeks.

Plants - Deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, vines and ground cover not only provide beauty and value to your backyard, they also provide flower buds, nectar, seeds, nuts and berries for birds. When selecting plants for birds, choose native plant species, not exotic plants. Native plants survive better because they are more disease resistant, have fewer insect problems and are better able to tolerate your regional climate. They are also more likely to provide the food to which native birds are attracted. Choosing plants that tolerate the sun/shade and soil conditions in your yard and that bloom or have seeds, berries or nuts for birds throughout the year is ideal.

Don’t forget that you not only have the square footage of your yard to work with for plantings but also the vertical space for trees, shrubs and vines. Providing multi-layers of vegetation is beneficial for birds. For example, an evergreen tree for an upper layer; shrubs, berry bushes or vines for a middle layer; and ground cover or flowers for a lower plant layer provide food for birds that prefer to feed at different heights. As we will discuss later in this lesson, planting in layers also provides optimal shelter for birds: safe perches, nesting sites, insulation from cold or rainy weather and shade from the sun.

The Cornell University web site at http://birds.cornell.edu/programs/AllAbo... discusses seven important plant groups for birds: conifers (pines, spruces), grasses and legumes, nectar producing plants, summer fruiting plants (blueberry, elderberry), fall fruiting plants (dogwood), winter-persistent plants (crabapple) and nut and acorn plants (oak).

Chapter 5 of The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher, which starts on page 266, is a guide to plants and birds in your region of North America. In addition, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources Conservation Service web site at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/feature/backyard suggests the following plants to attract birds.

Trees for birds: American beech (Fagus grandifolia) American holly (Ilex opaca) Balsam fir (Abies balsamea) Black cherry (Prunus serotina) Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica) Crabapple (Malus spp.) Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) Hawthorns (Crataegus spp.) Hickories (Carya spp.) Live oak (Quercus virginiana) Oaks (Quercus spp.) Red mulberry (Morus rubra) Shrubs for birds: Common juniper (Juniperus communis) Highbush blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) Hollies--both evergreen and deciduous species (Ilex spp.) Pyracantha (Pyracantha spp.) Red-osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) Sumacs (Rhus spp.) Viburnums (Viburnum spp.) Wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera) Vines for birds: American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens and related spp.) Strawberry (Fragaria spp.) Trumpet creeper or vine (Campis radicans) Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) Wild grape (Vitis spp.) Nectar plants for hummingbirds: Aster (Aster spp.) Azalea (Rhododendron spp.) Bee balm (Monarda spp.) Butterfly bush (Buddleia alternifolia) Butterfly weed and other milkweeds (Asclepias spp.) Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) Coneflower (Echinacea spp.) Fuchsia (Fuchsia spp.) Honeysuckle (Lonicera spp.) Trumpet creeper or vine (Campis radicans) Zinnia (Zinnia spp.)

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service web site also has tip sheets and a free, colorful 28-page booklet on Backyard Conservation.

Trees, shrubs, flower seeds, seedlings and other native plants are, of course, available from nurseries and retail stores. Plants can also be obtained from other gardeners (friends who are thinning out their plantings) or inexpensively at local garden club plant sales.

When choosing plants, remember to consider their ultimate height and size and the amount of yard work they will require. For example, evergreens like blue spruce provide excellent food and shelter for birds but do not require fall clean-up like deciduous trees do.

Birds are adaptable regarding their diets. Page 150 of our textbook, The Audubon Backyard BirdWatcher, describes how tree swallows, which usually eat flying insects, eat bayberries in cold weather when fewer insects are available. The size and shape of a bird’s bill can show you what kinds of food it eats. Types of bills are discussed on page 151 of our textbook. For example, woodpeckers have chisel-shaped bills for digging deep into wood and long tongues with tiny barbs for extracting insects.

1  2  3  4