Things you can do to help birds right now: landscaping

Volunteers from the Friends of Larsen Sanctuary have improved the Center at Fairfield’s gardens, making them more beneficial for birds.

What you’ll find below:

Small improvements in your yard can make a big difference

Native plants also provide fruit and other food directly to birds

Create a “stadium effect”

Dr. Desiree Narango’s Zoom presentation, “The birds, the bees, the flowers, the trees: Creating habitat for wildlife in our suburbs and cities.”

Peter Picone’s 2020 Annual Meeting keynote, “Wildlife and Habitat Are Inextricably Linked: Enhancing Habitat One Native Plant At A Time.”

August 3, 2021 — The mysterious condition that has been killing birds seems to have reached Connecticut.

One of the best things you can do for birds right now is to take down your bird feeder. Hummingbird feeders and bird baths included.

That will reduce the number of places where birds gather close together, to make it harder for the condition to spread, if it turns out to be infectious.

But there are other ways to help birds. Taking down your feeder now won’t be a burden for birds because there’s plenty of wild food available.

Even so, small things you do in your yard can have a big impact on birds and insects.

Native plants host native insects that are in turn food for birds and other wildlife. Hundreds of species of pollinators and birds live in Connecticut. Ninety six percent of all birds rear their young on insects, and it takes a lot: 4,000 to 9,000 caterpillars, for example, to raise just one nest of baby chickadees!

Creating a native habitat is also critical for the survival of pollinators.

Monarch butterflies benefit from the planting of milkweeds, and there are multiple options that add both color and ecological value to your garden.

Milkweed provides an important nectar source for butterflies, and their caterpillars feed exclusively on the leaves of our native milkweeds. Milkweed flowers are also an attractive food source for other native pollinators.

Food for birds
Some native plants also provide fruit and other food directly to birds.

The nutritious fruits of flowering dogwoods, for example, are perfectly timed with the migration of Scarlet Tanagers and thrushes. The birds in turn help to scatter their seeds across the landscape in their migratory journeys.

Many insect-eating birds will forage for insects after their long overnight migrations. So planting native flowers and shrubs that host pollinators is a great way to benefit those birds in fall.

Monarch caterpiller on Milkweed. Photo by Deirdra Wallin.

Plant for a “stadium effect”
Different species of birds and insects like to search for food at different heights from the ground, so varying the structure of your garden is import,

It’s best if you can create what we call the “stadium effect” in your plantings.

Start with low-growing wildflowers. Gradually building to taller plants, such as goldenrod, Joe Pye Weed or Ironweed. Then native shrubs like viburnum and blueberry, and small trees such as dogwoods and cedars.

Culminate in what’s probably there already: the canopy of tall oaks, hickories and maples (or else plant trees that will one day create that canopy).

Some flowers (coneflowers, for example) benefit birds directly by providing nutritious seeds or nectar for hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds are attracted to red flowers, particularly those with a tube-shaped flower, such as columbine, bee balm or cardinal lobelia.

Native plants are adapted to our region and will thrive with less watering, pesticides and fertilizer than you’d need for non-native plants.