Plant your garden with birds in mind

You can do a lot for birds in your own backyard, beyond putting out seed and a bird bath. By diversifying the plants in your backyard and providing resting and nesting places as well as food during all seasons, you can attract many species of birds.

There is a symbiotic relationship between birds and plants that is revealed in the wild and in the garden. Plants depend on birds to pollinate their flowers and have large blooms to attract them.

Serviceberry trees provide lots of fruit for birds

Plants that depend on birds to disperse their seeds have brightly colored fruit as seed-eating birds have a good eye for color. Most trees and shrubs bear small fruits, no more than three-fifths of an inch in diameter, which make it easier for birds to eat.

Now is a good time to plant trees, shrubs and perennials in your backyard. Nurseries are eager to sell off their plants so they won't have to carry their inventory over the winter. You'll see large discounts on plants. The plants may not look as good as they do in their summertime glory but that's to be expected. They're winding down for the colder months. But be sure to get your new plants in the ground right away. That way they'll have time to extend their roots before the ground freezes so they'll flourish in the spring.

Here are some guidelines in establishing a bird garden:

• Re-create layers of plant growth found in woodlands--canopy, understory, shrubs and ground layer.
• Select plants so that there is food in all seasons.
• Plant small trees and shrubs in same-species clumps to boost cross-pollination and fruit growth.
• Plant some evergreens which birds use for cover during storms.
• Plant vines for fruit or perching.
• Leave a dead tree for birds to perch on, to use as a singing post, or for woodpeckers to carve out nesting cavities.
• Supply a source of water for drinking, bathing or cooling off.
• Provide nesting boxes, which are good substitutes for increasingly scarce natural tree cavities.
• Leave lots of leaf litter under trees and shrubs for robins, towhees and juncos that pick through the mulch for worms, insects and spiders.

Don't use pesticides which can harm birds directly or contaminate insects that birds eat. (A lawn company was none too pleased when I told them that pesticides did not fit into our natural habitat philosophy.)

Lady bugs devour aphids on perennial plants

Beneficial insects devour or destroy many garden pests. In the latter case,  insects called parasitoids develop an egg or larvae inside a host, ultimately killing it.

Studies suggest that native "composites," members of the wide-ranging aster family, have the best blossoms for attracting beneficial insects. Composites with daisy-like blossoms consist of tiny flowers packed together on a central disk surrounded by colorful ray flowers. Examples of these flowers are aster, coneflower and tickseed (coreopsis).

Many of these plants are directly beneficial to birds due to the seeds that develop in the coneflowers and coreopsis.

Goldfinches love coneflower seeds

And don't forget reddish-colored perennial plants such as bee balm, cardinal flower, red-hot poker plant and trumpet vine. Their flowers contain nectar which attracts hummingbirds.

Planting bird-friendly trees, shrubs and perennials now will make your backyard more inviting for birds when warm weather returns next year.