Decorate Your
Yard with Birds! Wild birds come in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Try some
of our suggestions to attract birds and watch your yard come to life with beautiful, entertaining, and fascinating songbirds.
Making birds
welcome in your yard is not difficult and doesn’t need to be costly. Birds need an environment that
includes four elements: food, water, nesting sites, and shelter. Most
yards already have shelter in the form of trees and shrubs so adding a birdbath and a couple nest boxes along with a feeder
will give birds everything they need. .
Adding some bird-favorite seed producing flowers to your
yard or garden will also attract birds. See the suggested list below: Seed Producing Flowers
·Bachelor’s Buttons ·Zinnias ·Black
Eyed Susan
·Asters ·Purple
Coneflowers
·Globe Thistles ·Coreopsis ·Joe Pye Weed
Water Don’t forget the water! Birds
need water to drink and for bathing. Most birds enjoy a birdbath, but will also drink from smaller sources
such as a cup, bowl, or flowerpot saucer. Flowing water attracts birds so fountains, drippers, misters,
and any other type of moving water will draw in birds of many varieties.
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Hummingbirds Hummingbirds are
always an enjoyable addition to any yard. Here are a few tips for feeding hummingbirds: ·Fill feeder with 1 part white cane sugar and four parts water.
Water does not need to be boiled and can be stored in the
refrigerator for up to two weeks. ·Do
not add red food coloring to the water as it may be harmful to the birds. ·Clean feeders with water and/or bleach water but avoid using soap as it can leave
a harmful residue. ·Putting
fluorescent red or orange surveyor’s tape, non-sticky, near your feeder may attract more hummingbirds as they are believed
to be sensitive to ultraviolet light which is reflected by the tape. ·Consider hummingbird feeders that have perches to give the small bird a rest while
eating.
·Hummingbirds eat insects so always
remember not to use pesticides anywhere near where birds may be feeding. For more information about hummingbirds,
go to www.hummingbirds.net
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 Bird Feeders Many birds will eat from almost
any type of bird feeder, but larger songbirds like cardinals need larger feeders for landing. Platform
feeders may attract these larger songbirds because they have room for birds to land on top of them to feed. These
feeders consist of a simple frame with a screen bottom, or a bottom with holes, and can be hung like any other type of feeder.
Birds of all sizes will enjoy finding seeds on this type of feeder since it is similar to eating off the ground.
An even simpler platform feeder can be constructed of a flat board mounted on a post any height off the ground.Feeders can be placed anywhere
in the yard, but we suggest an area close to a tree, bush, or any other type of cover. Wild birds like
to feel protected from predators such as hawks so any type of obstruction that will block the flight path of a hawk will be
appreciated. If trees aren’t available try placing garden or decorative stakes in the ground two
or three feet around the feeder. Moving decorations like larger wind chimes that can be hung close to a
feeder may also serve as a deterrent to a hawk. Many birds fall prey every year to attacks by cats, as well
as dogs, which could often be avoided if pets were kept indoors. Small garden fences may also be placed
around the area under a feeder to protect birds from predators like cats and dogs while grazing on the ground. Feeders can be filled with any type of birdseed, but adding mixes with nuts and fruit might attract a
wider variety of songbirds, including woodpeckers and nuthatches.
 
Shelter A very inexpensive way to attract birds
is to build a small brush pile made of loose tree limbs, twigs, shrub branches from pruning, etc. Don’t
include clumping material like grass clippings, soil, or leaves. A brush pile not only provides cover and shelter, but attracts
insects which in turn attracts insect eating birds. Birds may also enjoy nesting in a brush pile. Birdhouses are used for nesting by some types of birds like
wrens, titmice, and martins. Some birds such as bluebirds need their potential houses to be cleaned out
prior to nesting season, or they will not use it. An important feature of any birdhouse is the size of
the entrance hole. Smaller holes will allow smaller birds like wrens to nest inside without being invaded
by larger birds that want to take over the birdhouse.
 
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