Creating a Backyard Bird Habitat

Creating a backyard habitat is not difficult to do. You’re trying to create an environment that birds and other wildlife will feel comfortable in. A backyard habitat does not have a manicured look to it. A wildlife friendly yard has a casual feel about it. It is not meticulous, with every plant pruned to look like it’s textbook picture, anymore than it is a wild rambling mess.  It’s a balance that’s easily achieved with a little thought.

There are four essential elements to a good backyard habitat: food, water, nesting sites and cover/shelter. If you have all four of these elements naturally, you’re off to a great start. It’s rare for a yard to possess all four, however. You probably have a couple of natural ones, such as some seed producing plants and some dense shrubbery, and have to augment them with “man-made” elements like a bird bath and birdhouses.

If you’re looking for a way to immediately improve the habitat of your backyard at little or no cost, consider building a brush pile. A brush pile is a loose mound of small tree limbs, branches, shrub branches from pruning, etc. Do not include soil, compost, grass clippings or leaves. A brush pile can provide cover, shelter and, depending on its size and location, nesting sites. It also attracts insects, which in turn attract insect eating birds. It can be built off to the side of the yard in an unused corner or beside a shed or garage. The size of your brush pile can vary, though generally the larger the better. However, I believe a small brush pile is better than no brush pile at all, so build what you can. Place the larger diameter branches on the bottom and build up. I think it’s also best to position the branches with the thinner tips facing in. This makes the outside of the brush pile a little sturdier and will make it a little more difficult for predators to enter. There should be plenty of open spaces between the branches, don’t pack them tightly. 

The plantings that you select can achieve more than one objective. A shrub such as elderberry produces berries in midsummer and is also good for birds to nest in.  Mahonias and hollies are good for cover and shelter and also produce berries. You should also strive to have only native plantings in your garden. The birds will naturally gravitate to plantings that are native and familiar to them. Exotic plants can be beautiful, but will probably yield little as a food source for your local birds. You’ll have to do a little research to see what’s native for your part of the country. Also, try to plant more than one plant of any given variety. Multiple plants of the same type in a flowerbed are more attractive and visible to the birds.

Some bird-favorite seed producing flowering plants are:

·      Bachelor’s Buttons

·      Zinnias

·      Black Eyed Susans

·      Asters

·      Purple Coneflowers

·      Globe Thistles

·      Coreopsis

·      Joe Pye Weed

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