Are you looking to make your backyard more bird-friendly? Well, you need the right habitat to attract a variety of popular birds into your backyard. Hence, a bird-friendly garden must fulfill the bird’s basic needs like water, food, shelter, and nesting sites.
Hence, in this article, I will discuss some of the best Bird Friendly Backyard Ideas that you can implement right away.
So, which are these Bird Friendly Backyard Ideas? Some ideas to consider include Ensuring your backyard has a water source, putting up a bird feeder, growing native plants, having different layers of plants, providing adequate shelter, including a variety of plant species, Reduce Open Areas, and leaving part of the yard in its natural form.
Bird Friendly Backyard Ideas (Importance)
- Wild birds provide additional beauty to backyards. They help to bring nature’s tranquility to the comfort of your home. You’ll appreciate the wild bird’s beautiful songs and vibrant colors that help you to relax and enjoy nature at your home.
- It’s fulfilling to know that you’re catering to the wild bird’s basic needs and giving them a place to call home.
- You get an opportunity to learn about different bird species at the comfort of your backyard
- If you love bird watching, then the bird-friendly backyard will help you fulfill your hobby. You can take some amazing pictures and add them to your collection.
Bird Friendly Backyard Ideas
Check out the ideas below to create an amazing habitat that will attract colorful wild birds and heart-warming melodies.
1. Put up a Bird Feeder
The best and highly recommended way to attract wild birds into your backyard is to install a bird feeder and fill it up with birdseed.
However, you don’t need to have a bird feeder to attract the birds. You can just use a dish or scatter the food on the ground. Most wild birds are enticed with food and water, so it doesn’t really matter where you place the food. Read this article on how to attract wild birds without a feeder.
Although the bird feeder makes bird feeding easier, it’s bound to attract other species that are not your interest.
Hence, you might want to be careful while choosing your bird feeder. You need to choose one that keeps all these other species away. You can buy a tube feeder, ground feeder, squirrel-proof bird feeder, or Hummingbird feeder among others.
2. Put Up a Water Source
If you want to attract a wide range of wild birds to your backyard, it’s important that you put up a water source. Installing a water source is a bird-friendly backyard idea that you must keep in mind at all times.
All birds need drinking and bathwater. To make it even more appealing to the birds you can include a fountain, a bubbler, or just ensure that the water is moving.
Some of the other bird-friendly backyard ideas that will ensure the birds have access to water include installing a solar fountain, pedestal birdbath, having an artificial stream, or just a ceramic dish among others.
3. Choose Local Native Plants
Using local native plants is an excellent bird-friendly backyard idea that will help attract a wide variety of birds. These birds are already familiar with these plants and they recognize them as rich food sources.
Normally, landscaping for birds requires local trees, flowers, grasses, and shrubs.
Native plants also provide a wide range of bird food all year round. They cater to all birds including nesting, wintering, and migrating birds.
If you’re unsure about the native plants in your specific region, you can use this database to determine the best bird-friendly native plants for your region.
Usually, Plants for a bird-friendly garden are the locally available flowers, vegetation, grass, trees, or shrub. Avoid planting things that will keep the birds away. If possible, consult an experienced landscaper, visit the local nursery, or local plant conservatory
4. Layered Vegetation
A Layered Vegetation will provide the bird-friendly garden you’ve always wanted. Ensure that your backyard has a variety of plant layers that will help attract different types of birds. Naturally, the habitat is full of different bird species and each bird species may have or choose its favorite place. Therefore, if you provide variety in terms of vegetation in your backyard, you’re likely to attract different types of birds.
Some birds prefer to nest in bushes; others love tall trees, while others love scavenging for food on the ground.
Therefore, it’s important that you select different plants with different heights and ensure that they are well spaced. You can plant low flowers, tall grasses, taller shrubs, or any other native plant that you like.
When you grow a variety of these items, you’ll provide the best habitat for the wild birds to visit or even stay. You’ll definitely attract many bird species into your backyard.
5. Consider Hummingbirds
If your area has Hummingbirds, you may want to attract them into your backyard. Hummingbirds are attractive; they will make your backyard look great.
Therefore, consider growing plants that will attract them. It’s wise to first check whether the plants are native or ideal to your region. Do your research and due diligence before growing plants to attract Hummingbirds.
Some plants worth considering include
- Red Cardinal Flower
- wild crab apple
- honeysuckle
- spotted jewelweed
- Rhododendron
- salmonberry
6. Reduce Empty Spaces
Empty lawn spaces will not attract any birds. As I’ve mentioned above, most wild birds prefer layered vegetation and a place with lots of flowers, trees, shrubs, and grasses.
Therefore, if you want to achieve a bird-friendly backyard you’ll need to do the following
- Plant additional trees on those empty spaces
- Enlarge the flowerbeds
- Ensure your backyard has massive flowers and vegetation
- Increase the size of the garden
7. Provide Adequate Shelter
To ensure you have a bird-friendly backyard you’ll need to provide adequate shelter for your wild birds. You can provide shelter by growing dense plants or dense vegetation that will help shield the birds from predators like cats, hawks, and others.
The dense vegetation will also provide a suitable place for birds to settle and nest. This means they will have a permanent residence in your backyard. They won’t need to move as your backyard caters to all their basic needs including water, food, and shelter.
8. Grow Plants with Flowers, Seeds, or Berries
Some plants are a rich source of food for wild birds and including them in your bird gardens will attract a variety of bird species.
Some flowers become excellent winter foods and they ensure the birds have a meal throughout the season.
Berry bushes also provide a reliable food source for the birds. Examples of plants that you can grow in a bird-friendly garden include wild roses, Oregon grape, blueberries, and cherries among many others.
9. Use Organic Fertilizers
If you want to know how to make a bird-friendly garden, you need to understand the things that can attract birds into your yard and those that will keep them off.
First off, you need to adopt non-toxic lawn care and use organic fertilizers for all your plants.
Exposure to chemicals will have devastating effects on the birds. You can use natural products like vinegar and other organic fertilizers to keep your birds safe.
10. Designate You Backyard Accordingly
Another Bird-friendly backyard idea worth considering is the importance of designating the spaces where birds and people will occupy. Therefore, you need to divide the yard in a way that both birds and people have their specific spots.
An area with a lot of activities, especially where your family plays backyard games might not be the ideal spot for attracting birds.
Birds are shy and they tend to take off immediately they notice any movements or activity. Hence, it’s wise to set aside a specific portion of the backyard for birds only.
11. Keep Cats Indoors
Cats are a great threat to birds. Domestic cats have killed most birds. In the United States, for example, cats kill about 2.4 billion birds every year.
Therefore, if you wish to attain a bird-friendly backyard, your cats should remain indoors. You can even talk to your neighbors and encourage them to keep their cats indoors.
Pictures of Backyard Bird Sanctuary
Conclusion
I hope you have learned some of the best Bird-friendly backyard ideas you can implement right away. All the ideas in this article will give you a bird-friendly backyard that will attract a variety of bird species.
After you’ve implemented all these ideas, just be patient and with time the birds will come around.
