A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2006 THE Plan for Making my Yard Attractive to Birds

Okay here is my plan.

I have a wooded area with thicket which does help to attract birds. The area already includes. GIANT white oaks, cherry, holiday trees, cedar, old Honey suckle, wild dogwoods..The area that I want to improve for the birds is about 2 acres and the woods is compacted to the north side of my property, runing east and west. Around the rest of my property I have pasture, crepe myrtles, lilac, gardenia, and misc flower gardens.

I am adding 10 Dogwoods
2 mulberry trees
2 willow trees the willow trees will not be near the wooded area.
Lavender 1 acre of nothing but lavender
Holly
Hazel nut
Misc Pines..(any suggestions re certain pine trees to plant? Or should I leave the pines out and add more nut trees?

I do not have any maples..should I add a couple maples?

and along the edges of the thicket..blueberry, blackberry, and holly, possibly some wild thistle.
We have these giant thistles here that get 3-4 ft tall I noticed the birds like to sit on them. Especially the Yellowhammer. Ohhh now I know what kind of bird it is...<smile>

What do you think??

PLUS I am going to go out and drill holes in my cherry trees with a doorknob drill bit to make nesting places for birds..<<is that dumb??

I wouldn't drill holes in your tree. Instead buy or build nest boxes for your birds. I have built and installed literally HUNDREDS of nest Boxes all over Tennessee to help birds. I go to construction sites and get permission from the foremen to take their lumber scraps. The important thing is to NOT get treated lumber. Also chipcore (the plywood that looks like it is made of wood FRAGMENTS) and particle board are NOT suitable for bird houses. All other wood should be safe. It is also NOT necessary to paint your nest boxes and you should NEVER put a perch on one.
Here is a photo of me installing a nest box in my backyard. I built and installed this box about two weeks again. Even though it is not nest season, birds will use these boxes for protection to get out of bad weather in Winter. As a matter of fact I have some Carolina Wrens eyeballing this box as a potential Winter home already

Thornius Puts up a Homemade Nestbox

Pines are also very good for birds. White Pines are best for our area. Maples, especially Sugar Maples are very beneficial for Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, that come during the Winter. They peck out parallel rings of holes around the trunks of trees and return a few days later to drink out the sap that fills the holes. The holes do not harm the tree in any way and seem to be actually beneficial to the trees.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Holes Drilled in my Bradford Pear tree


Yellow-bellied Sapsucker on my Weeping willow tree


Thornius' House

If you can do holly how about some oregon grape as well. The berries make great jam and the birds like it too. It is agressive like the holly also.

Okay I won't drill holes in my trees...Kind of a silly idea. I found some information on specifics for building bird houses it has dimensions, and height and even what size hole attracts certain birds. So I will try that. Just I am not such a good builder.

Thornius it is on the site you posted..

http://birding.about.com/library/blhousespecs.htm

Will Oregon Grape grow in Alabama?

Yes if holly will oregon grape will. Since you have so much space you might want to get an American Chestnut tree and some pines between the height of 5 and 7 feet. They attract a certain type of jay that will only nest in that size pine tree. And if you get several of them going you could always have your own christmas tree. Wouldn't that be cool.

You know the arbor foundation will even give you some trees free. You might want to look into that too.

Okay I will add the Oregon Grape and a American Chestnut. and some maples and pines..I do have one hickery nut tree. I like blue spruce the best verses pine.

I bought a cut tree for the first time in YEARS this year. My kids are gone to college and I did not want to put up my huge fake tree. I originally wanted to buy a little tree in a pot but NOBODY had one..SOOOO I bought a little cut tree..I feel so guilty about patronizing people who cut down trees. I mean I am not a militant re nature or trees. But I just feel it is such a waste to cut down a tree.

Well if you cut down one of your own that is 7 foot tall and reseed each year once they get that size you won't have to feel guilty lol. And the Blue spruce make wonderful christmas trees. I'm so excited for you. How great it must be to have that much land. Congrats and the best of luck with your corner of heaven.

Actually I had 3 horses and sold 2 a lot of land, without grazers (aka horses) can be A LOT of work. That is why I want to turn part of it into a bird habitat. I am thinking it will be easier than mowing ALLLL the time. Once the trees mature. Plus I think trees bring up the value of the land. A deliberate bird habitat must make the value of the property go up. Maybe I am not realistic about that. If I can figure out how to put pictures up, I will put before and after shots up.

In regards to realestate. Landscaping of any kind does not affect the value of the land. What it can do is increase it's saleability. In another words how long the land stays on the market once it is put up for sale. Sorry I don't have better news on that front.

Actually on a large piece of land Large Mature trees do make the land more valuable and desirable. There are actually people out there that pay to have mature trees added to their treeless property. Mature tree costs $20,000 and up.

Thornius - can I ask why you shouldn't have perches on your bird boxes (for my future reference)

Perches allow pest birds like House Sparrows (which were imported to the U.S. from England about 100 years ago) from using the boxes. Also, any bird that uses bird boxes is able to EASILY grip the flat surface of the box to get in and out of the box.

British House Sparrow at my Birdbath Gargling

Thanks! Even sparrows are becoming rarer over here due to a general decline in birdlife (mainly cats I suspect) so we are encouraged to feed them now all year round, whereas as a child we were always taught only to put food out in the winter to avoid young birds learning to rely on us for food. Luckily round my street there are areas of dense bush that seem to to love. I love them, import or no! You tend to see them in every country now though!

Actually, I rather like the House Sparrows. I have about 30 that live in my yard all year now and Boy do they eat the seed! I have heard about the huge decline in House Sparrows in the UK so I've reserved 15 of mine for you, badkitti. Here is a picture of a female House Sparrow I rescued that got her leg caught in one of my suet feeders.

House Sparrow (Female)

Ah bless! I'll look forward to the shipment!

Badkitti is there any research being done as to why bird populations are declining???? Maybe you can talk your landloard into planting more bird friendly plants. Do you live in a city?

Birds have accute senses maybe there is something toxic that is chasing them away.

Oui, The English or House Sparrow population is seriously declining in England their country of origin although their populations are thriving in the rest of the world , including the US where they were imported over 100 years ago. These are the large flocks of little brown sparrows (actually Weaver Finches) that you see in shopping center and fast food parking lots. The males have a black bib. They are very vociferous and noisy and although very destructive to American birds are quite amusing to watch.

I don't actually know why they are declining though I do suspect cats (much I love both species). I shall have a google for the answer. The sparrows seem to be uite happy around my street as i have a large green bank running along one side with some fairly mature trees and some dense hedges nearby as well.

We also have field sparrows over here

Thanks for the article badkitti. It says it is the lack of food.

Maybe it is the polution from the cars...I live out in the country so I have lots of birds in my yard. I do not think I would be as happy if I did not have these Jewels of nature in my yard. I have 6 cats and they do not deter the birds. Actually I trained my cats not to go near the birds, feeders, and bird houses..

OOPS I mean pollution.....

These sparrows are common in populated areas here they seem to like to hang around McDonald's and other fast food restaurants. I see them begging for crumbs beside my car when I am at Sonic..(which is a attempt at an old fashioned drive in, park and eat in your car type of fast food restaurant)The waitresses come to your car on roller skates and serve you. I always feed the bun to the birds.

Tell everyone in the UK to put some bread crumbs out for the birds...<<smile>>