Attracting Birds To Your Garden

• Trees – mountain ash, Shubert chokecherry, birch, crab apple, and hawthorn
• Smaller shrubs – serviceberry, high bush cranberry, quince, female winterberry, pagoda, gray dogwood, Russian olive, honeysuckle, elder, and sumac
• Vines – Boston ivy, Virginia creeper, wild grape, and American bittersweet
• Annuals – sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, marigolds, and celosia.
• Perennials – globe thistle, black-eyed Susan, asters, and ornamental grasses in the garden are valuable seed sources during a long, cold winter
• Berries – Spartan juniper, female holly, Oregon grape, and wintergreen

Feed the birds year-round, not just during winter, so you can enjoy the beauty of summer visitors as well. Don’t worry about the birdseed that falls on the ground; mourning doves and juncos love to clean up the leftovers.

• Sunflower seed – The black seed is a particular favourite of blue jays, cardinals, and chickadees.
• Wild finch mixture and niger seed – Sold in smaller quantities to specifically attract finches.
• Suet cakes – An important food source in winter months for many birds including chickadees, woodpeckers, and nuthatches.

Besides having plants that naturally produce food for birds, you can also provide a constant supply of seed and nuts in bird feeders. There are many styles and sizes of bird feeders to choose from:

• Wood feeders
• Plastic feeders
• Hanging feeders
• Pole-mounted feeders
• Squirrel-proof feeders
• Suet feeders

Bigger birds like blue jays and cardinals won’t land on a small feeder. Tubular feeders have perches with seed openings of varying sizes. The “upside down feeder” is a tubular feeder specifically designed for goldfinches to land on the perch and flip upside down to feed.

• Birds need water to survive as much as they need food source.
• If you aren’t near a natural body of water, use a birdbath, fountain, or small water garden in partial shade. Not only will birds drink the water, but they’ll also bathe in it to cool off.
• Change the water frequently so harmful bacteria does not build up.
• Put out fresh water each day or invest in a birdbath heater for the winter to prevent the water from freezing.

• Bird houses vary in size, especially in the diameter of the hole, so that other birds can’t get in to raid a nest of eggs.
• Place a bird house in the shelter of a tree, away from predators, and facing away from prevailing winds and precipitation.
• Purple martins, the largest member of the swallow family, like to live together in groups. Martin houses are available and are designed for their special needs; they are mounted on a pole and require thorough cleaning each year before a new colony will take up residence. Purple martins are highly prized because their primary food source is mosquitoes.