Birds choose environments that provide them with food, water, and shelter. Take a bird's-eye look at your backyard. Does it provide those things? If not, there are plants you can grow and many other ways you can enhance your yard to make it more bird-friendly. Here are some tips to help you:

Evaluate Your Real Estate

First, take stock of what you already have. Draw a map of your property including buildings and other structures, sidewalks, fences, trees, shrubs, and the location of feeders and nestboxes. Note sunny or shady sites, low or wet areas, sandy sites, and plants you want to keep.

Start With a Plan

Before you start digging holes and rearranging your yard, develop a planting plan. Draw each new plant onto a piece of tracing paper, then place that over the map of your yard (of course, you could do this on your computer, too). Once your plants are in, use your map as a reminder about which need to be watered and weeded, especially in the first year after planting. Mulch is an invaluable tool for keeping moisture in and weeds out.

Include Important Plant Groups

In general, try to include in your planting plan some of the following important plant groups that are particularly valuable for birds :

• Conifers
• Grasses and legumes
• Nectar-producing plants
• Summer-fruiting plants
• Fall-fruiting plants
• Winter-persistent plants
• Nut and acorn plants

For more details about these plant types and what they offer birds, go to the Important Plant Groups page.

Choose Their Favorites

If you'd like to attract specific birds, find out which plants they prefer. For bird-friendly plant suggestions, browse through the following pages, to learn more:

• Deciduous trees
• Coniferous Trees and Vines
• Shrubs

Think "Variety!"

Looking for diversity? Plants can provide birds with food in the form of flower buds, fruit, seeds, nectar, or sap, as well as nest sites and nest material, and shelter from adverse weather conditions and predators. The larger the variety of plants you grow, the more different kinds of birds your yard will attract.

Choose Plants Wisely

Select new plants appropriate for the lighting and soil conditions of your property. Consider how big a new plant might eventually grow, and avoid the surprise of it taking over your yard!

Go Native!

Plant native species instead of exotics. Native plants, such as those at right, are more likely to thrive, plus they offer the foods best suited to the birds of your area. Here, in summer, the red blooms of cardinal flower attract hummingbirds, while wild bergamot and goldenrod harbor insects, an excellent food source for birds. Later in fall when the goldenrod fades, finches and sparrows will feast on its seeds.

Year-round Attractions

To keep the birds coming back for more, select a variety of plants that will produce foods in different seasons. For winter residents as well as migrants that return early in spring, plants that hold their fruits throughout the winter ("winter-persistent" plants) are a vital food source.

Give Them Shelter

Provide dense thickets where birds can nest, perch, and escape from predators, by planting some shrubs, growing a hedge, or training vines over fencelines. Try to create an area of thick, wild growth to imitate a natural environment.

Dead Wood's Good!

Try to leave dead limbs and trees in place if it's safe to do so. Insects that live under the bark and in the decaying wood are an important food source for birds such as woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches. Cavity-nesting birds such as bluebirds and woodpeckers need old, hollow trees to nest in. To make a dead tree prettier, consider planting native vines, such as Virginia Creeper, to disguise its trunk.

Build a Brush Pile

Recycle dead branches to start a brush pile for your ground-dwelling birds, such as sparrows and towhees. It gives them protection from cold weather and predators. Lay down a couple of feet of thick branches, and put thinner branches over the top. Add your old Christmas tree if you have one.

Leave a Mess!

If you hate to tidy up your yard and flower beds in fall, birds will love you for it. If you grow annuals, especially daisy-relatives such as purple coneflowers, black-eyed susans, and sunflowers, leave the dead seed heads on them when they fade—goldfinches, redpolls, and other seed-eaters will feast on the seeds. Instead of bagging up fallen leaves for disposal, rake them under your shrubs to act as mulch. They'll harbor insects that ground-dwelling birds will find, too. And, come spring, those dead leaves, grasses, and plant stems will be a treasure trove for birds searching for nest material in your yard.