Birds and How to Attract Them to Your Garden

Spring is just around the corner! It's only a matter of time until the birds return as well, and if you love birds and bird-watching, the best place to have them is right there in your garden. It's not really difficult to attract birds to your backyard. Here are the four top tricks to remember:

1. Provide the Birds with Habitats and Hiding Places
The safety of the birds is paramount! Maintain in your yard a variety of places (habitats) in which birds can live and hide. A grassy area, a little pond with rushes all around it, trees, clusters of bushes, rough hedges, a vine-covered fence or wall; all are good.

2. Plant Some Bird-Friendly Greenery
Trees and shrubs which are especially attractive to birds include Asiatic sweet-leaf, barberry, blueberry, coral-berry, elderberries, flowering crab, Japanese yew, nanny berry, pepper-tree, red cedar, smooth sumac, and white mulberry.

Good vines for attracting birds include grape, green-brier, honeysuckle (especially good for hummingbirds), matrimony vine, and Virginia creeper.

Asters, blazing star, chicory, and sunflowers top the list of flowering plants and herbs most birds prefer. Your local garden center will know which of these are best suited to your area.

3. Put Up Bird Feeding Stations and Bird Baths
If you feed them, they will come! Keep your feeding and watering stations close to the cover of trees or eaves. Make sure that all of your birds are protected from cats and squirrels by metal sheets tacked around trunks or poles, or by hanging feeders from wires. Attract birds first by putting food on stumps and rocks; you can lure them to stands and cable trays later on. And keep those feeders clean! Don't ever allow old seeds to rot. Make sure to wash off any mold or fungus in hot, soapy water, and dry the feeders thoroughly before you refill.

Bird seed, bird feeders and bird baths are easily obtainable at your supermarket, pet store, and garden center.

4. Provide Them With Good Nesting Sites
You can furnish natural nesting sites by providing trees, hedges, vines, brush, rushes and clumps of high grass. Or you can go all-out and build a birdhouse! Rustic bird houses covered with tree bark are especially good. Some birds, such as the swallows and martins, nest in groups. A line of gourd birdhouses, fitted with proper size holes and hung from a beam, wire or branch will attract this type of bird.

Welcome Birds!
It won't be long before a few bird scouts discover your garden oasis, and once they've told their friends, the rest will arrive in a flash. Now is the time to grab your binoculars and do a little bird-watching, or just open wide your windows and enjoy their cheery bird songs, all season long.

See also:
>How to Make a Bottle Gourd Birdhouse
>How to Build a Water Lily Pond in Your Back Yard
>Low-Voltage Lighting for a High-Impact Garden
>Garden Catalogs You Can Order Online