Attracting Birds To Your Garden

To attract birds to your garden, you’ll need to provide water, food and shelter. Below are the provisions you will need for attracting birds.

Birds will visit your garden if there’s plenty of food available, so the first thing to do is get up some feeders.

Then you need to provide natural food, cover and nesting sites.

Bird Baths

You probably want to accommodate various kinds of birds. A good rule of thumb is that a bird bath with a depth of two inches is ideal for larger birds like cardinals, grackles, and blue jays.

Smaller birds will go in depths of about one inch.

You don’t have to buy an actual bird bath. You can also use shallow containers like pot saucers. If you are using a flat container such as a pot saucer, you can add rocks for birds to perch on.

After you set out your container/containers of water, watch for a few days to see if birds are using it for bathing and preening. Then make improvements based on your observations.

Keep an eye on your bird bath to ensure it doesn’t freeze over in winter. When defrosting it do not use salt. Salt can kill the birds.

5 Ways To Attract Birds To The Bird Bath

• Keep the water fresh
• Clean the bird bath regularly
• Give them something to perch on, like a rock that is partially above water
• Maintain a temperature like heat in winter; and on hot days use blocks of ice
• Add moving water to attract them

Bird Feeders

If you put more than one feeder in various places, more birds will come. Some birds are comfortable with crowds but others like their privacy.

Position your feeder a few feet from a tree or bush. This gives the birds a staging area where they can wait before swooping in.

Locate your bird feeders at different levels. Sparrows, juncos and towhees usually feed on the ground. Finches and cardinals feed in shrubs. Chickadees, titmice and woodpeckers feed in trees.

Once you start feeding birds in the winter it is best to stick with it. Birds in colder areas need more calories and will come to depend on you. You can offer a variety of seeds in separate feeders.

Keep your bird seed in a cool dry place.

Install native plants to attract birds to your garden

Offer native plants as a year-round source of food. This can be in the form of seeds, berries, nuts, and nectar.

Check out recommended native plants by region and state here.

Try to recreate the plant ecosystem native to your particular area.

Top 12 Native Plants for Birds (According to Birds & Blooms)

1. Asters: many native perennial species, such as calico aster, heart-leaved aster, New England aster, sky blue aster, smooth aster, white wood aster
2. Black-eyed Susans: short-lived Rudbeckia hirta, including the rustic-colored mix known as Gloriosa daisy, and perennial R. fulgida 
3. Blue anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)
4. Brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba)
5. Calliopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)
6. Blanket flower (Gaillardia spp.)
7. Liatris
8. Lupines: many native species, such as the famous Texas bluebonnet
9. Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera)
10. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
11. Sunflowers, annuals and perennials (Helianthus, all species)
12. Yellow coneflower (Ratibida pinnata)

Bird Houses

You want to have your bird houses set up before breeding season.

• In the south, place your nest boxes by February.
• In northern regions, place your nest boxes by mid to late March.

If possible provide a 2 inch roof overhang to prevent cats from being able to reach into the birdhouse. Drill 1/4 inch holes in the bottom for drainage.

Most birds will be happy to have their birdhouse between 6 ft to 15 ft off the ground. You want to be able to reach it by ladder for cleaning.

Attracting Birds For Apartment Dwellers

If you live in an apartment building or don’t have a yard, you can still attract birds.

Window feeders can be attached to a window with suction cups.

Hanging baskets containing certain flowers will attract hummingbirds and butterflies. Hummingbirds are attracted to brightly colored flowers that are tubular and hold nectar. They also love the color red.

There are many ways to attract birds to a small space garden or apartment setting. Even a container shrub is suitable for a nest.

Plants to attract hummingbirds and butterflies: Petunias, salvias, geraniums, verbena, lantana

Eliminate insecticides in your yard

Following organic practices helps wildlife. Insects are the primary source of food for many bird species and are an important source of protein and fats for growing juvenile birds.

Keep dead trees

Dead trees provide cavity-dwelling places for birds to raise young and as a source to collect insects for food. Some will also seek shelter from bad weather inside hollowed out trees.

Build a brush pile in a corner of your yard

Start with larger logs and top with smaller branches. Some birds will hunt, roost or even nest in brush piles.

Remove invasive plants from your wildlife habitat

Many invasive plants out-compete the native species favored by birds, insects and other wildlife.

Check with your local U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension System office for information on plant species to avoid. 

Reduce your lawn area

Lawns have little value to birds or other wildlife. They also require more energy for mowing, applying fertilizers and watering.

Instead, consider a garden in either your front and/or back yard.

Buying Bird Seed

Buy bird food from reputable sources. This ensures that the seeds can provide the required levels of energy. And that they’ve been grown with the environment in mind.

Never put out desiccated coconut as it swells inside a bird’s stomach. Also avoid providing sugary treats and cooked oats, which can dry and solidify around beaks.

Reduce the opportunities for predators like cats and sparrowhawks by placing feeders where the birds can spot danger easily.

Avoid using garden netting, especially during the breeding season. Place feeders away from your house to minimize the risk of birds colliding with windows.

Keep cats away

If you have problems with cats, electronic deterrents should repel them from bird feeding areas.

Place feeders away from low cover that could conceal a cat. They are predators that rely on cover to sneak up on their prey.

Check your nest boxes each winter. Remove old nests and clean the boxes with hot water to kill parasites.

Change nest box location to attract birds to your garden

Choose a diversity of nest box types and move those that prove unsuccessful.

If you’re struggling to attract birds to a nest box, you might find that quite a small change in location or aspect can encourage birds to nest there.

Do not use too many of one type of nest box, especially tit boxes: multiple options will confuse them.

Sterilize feeders

Remove moldy seed from feeders and sterilize them regularly to reduce the risk of spreading diseases.

Clean them more frequently when there are lots of birds in your garden and/or when you suspect that some are sick. Watch for lethargic birds that are sitting around with their feathers fluffed up.

To clean your feeder, take it apart and use a dishwasher on a hot setting or hand wash either with soap and boiling water or with a dilute bleach solution. Use no more than 1 part bleach to 9 parts water.

Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry before refilling.

Feed your birds twice daily in severe weather

Stick to your feeding routine once you’ve started. The birds will become accustomed to it and rely on you.

By feeding birds year-round you’ll give them a better chance of survival.

Ensure the post supporting your feeder is smooth and straight as this will make it much more difficult for cats and squirrels to climb. Adding a sloped baffle to your feeder will keep squirrels off-balance.

By using some of these methods, you are sure to attract birds to your garden. It may take a little while for they are cautious. Be patient.