The Joy of Feeding Birds. Creating a Bird Friendly Garden

Garden Plants Which Attract and Feed Birds

Flowers and Plants which Attract Hummingbirds to your Garden

Creating a Butterfly Friendly Garden

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Thank you, Bill! This is excellent! I'm planning on doing my backyard this year, and DH and myself are wanting an area for the birds and squirrels. This just gave me lots to look at! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Wow! That just answered all my questions Bill, thanks!

My husband and I are going to try our hand at a butterfly garden this summer in honor of his late grandmother. She loved butterflies. I wondered if there was anything we could do to make our little patch more appealing to our guests.
Now that I know about puddling I'm going to have to get some sand and container of some sort to keep it in! I'm thinking a birdbath filled with damp sand would work. I am also very happy to hear that herbs are very attractive to butterflies as well since I am planting my fist herb garden this season too!

Well thanks again, I find that all my questions are answered here before I even get a chance to ask them!! That's awesome!

Another good butterfly shrub not on Bill's list is Aesculus parviflora or Bottlebrush Buckeye. I've counted as many as 4 dozen butterflies on mine at one time.

Hi Bill!!! Love your photos....triing to find out how I can upload mine onto here soon. I have used natural wildflowers for my butterfly garden by transplanting the ones that they frequently feed around. Over here in PA we have a couple of Clearwing families.Being the avid bug collector that I am, I snapped a few clear pics of them. They realy love the blue sage that grows all over the place. Butterfly bushes work great also.

Greetings, all! I'm pleased to be attracting butterflies with my flowers. Does that necessarily mean that I'll atrract birds, too? My cats like the idea, but it seems unfair to lure the poor birdies to their doom!

Depends on what you want to attract. I plant large beds of sunflowers and get American Goldfinches. Salvia is good for attracting Humminbirds, as are many flowers. There should be threads on here about the flowers that birds like. I am more of a birdwatcher than a gardner but these are the plants that I use.

How can i post a picture of a plant for identification??? Ive searched the internet and cannot find out what this is. It was very popular with butterflies and hummingbirds. The foliage looks sort of like carnation type leaves and buds..yet the flowers almost look like morning glories or periwinkle..flowers are purple. I have pictures but didnt know how to post them. I can email if needed. HELP!!!

You need to see what other's have written here about posting pics, Weezie knows ........I used to be able to post my pics from Webshots but they no longer let you do that , so I keep them there and people have to go there to see them.

Is it some kind of vinca? or does the flower only open up during sunny days and close each night,"blue-eyed grass" I've got tons of that, which is beautiful, or maybe some dianthus, which is in the carnation family which the butterflies go crazy for and I also get the hummingbird moth , a really cool little creature.

Shan...do you have a photo storage place like Webshots or PhotoBucket? You can post a picture directly here so it shows up using PhotoBucket, but have to post a link to it using webshots. I use PhotoBucket for my pictures...it's very easy to use.

If you'd like me to post it for you you can email it to me and I'll put it on here in the mystery plants forum...and someone will ID it pronto!

afgreyparrot@thegardenhelper.com

Welcome to the forum!

Cindy

I have a question about feeding birds. I did read this segment: The Joy of Feeding Birds. Creating a Bird Friendly Garden, but still am wondering something.

I have heard people say that once you start having bird feeders you need to keep them filled year round cause the birds will come to depend on this food source.

I've also heard that once the ground has thawed and the natural vegetation starts to grow that you should discontinue with feeders until the natural vegetation "hibernates" for the winter, cause if you feed them year round they will forget how to forage the natural vegetation.

Which is true?

That is NOT true. I keep my feeders filled pretty much all the time but have almost no activity in Summer. The busiest periods for feeders is mid-Winter through late Spring. Birds come to feeders when food is hard to find. When natural food is plentiful their visits to feeders drop dramatically.

thanks for the information Bill.
penny

Thanks Bill! There's some wonderful information I can use! I'm putting in some new plants this year and I would like to get some flowers that would attract more hummers and butterflies.

When is the best time to transplant butterfly bushes. I have 2 i want to move-they are in front of windows and are too big to leave there.

I feed birds all year long. I purchase my seed from Wildbirds Unlimited because it is blended especially for birds that habitat my area. It costs a little more than seed from the local farm store, but there is no waste.

Very good stuff bill. This is just what I need to learn about. I'm printing all of them now! Thank you very much!!

I need to know if there is any vine I can grow up a tree to attract hummers - I have a great area in the sun but the only thing to climb on is a tree and I've heard not to grow vines on trees, is this true? Thanks in advance

The hummers LOVE my Jasmin and Honey Suckle vines!

Could you get one of those inexpensive arches for the vine to grow on?

This is what I have my honey suckle and jasmine growing on. The hummers LOVE it!

I dont know if its on the list but for bird feeders only use black sun flower seeds or a mixture of grain. Dont use Nuts unless you want squirrels to devour your bird feeder.

Also ivy is good for butterflys because cattapillas like to (what ever its called) on the under side of the follage as it provides excellent protection from predators.

Although ensure you keep it undercontrol as it will take over your garden.

Always transplant in spring or fall. Unless you are in a really cold climate, the window has passed already. You can, however, hack them back a bit, them move them in the fall.

Other hummer vines are anything they can get their little beaks into...Cardinal Climber, Morningglories, Trumpet Vine, Cross Vine, Clock vine, etc. etc. All take full sun and bloom all summer, whereas jasmine only blooms in the spring (although it smells heavenly). Although they tell you hummingbirds especially like red flowers, mine always go for the blue Indigo Spires salvia. Maybe my hummers are colorblind.

Hummers are especially attracted to red but will eat out of every color nectar flower. Bees and wasps see red as black and are attracted to them least, or last, so the hummers know they're the safest color to go to first. Yes bees can hurt hummers.
Be sure to check that the plants and vines arent invasive or you could go nuts trying to pull things out later on.

Trumpet Vine is very good for hummers. The VERY BEST plant I've found for Hummingbirds, especially in late Summer/early Fall, IF you live near a marshy area or small stream is Jewelweed. It forms a bush with small, yellow or orange, trumpet shape blossoms. Its seed pods look like little String Bean pods. These plants grow right in the marshy areas of bogs or on tiny islands in the middle of small streams. These islands are typically a gravel/silt composition and often are packed with Jewelweed bushes. The bushes, in turn, are packed with Hummingbirds in August and September. Here are pictures.

JEWELWEED BUSH IN FULL BLOOM (Impatiens capensis)



JEWELWEED SEED PODS

Most butterfly bushes are meant to be cut back to about three inches in late winter or early spring. I would cut them back and leave them where they are.

Thornius, thank you especially for including pics. They are very informative. Will this jewelweed propagate profusely with those seed pods or am I pretty safe putting it in my yard? By the way I have been trying to get a picture of this guy for a week and when I just read on one of these forums that you are a woodpecker guy, I wanted to send it to you. There is a male and female in the box, don't know about babies yet. (I can't find the forum again, oh well.) Thanks again!

Momma D, That is a male Northern Flicker, more of a Ground Pecker than a Woodpecker. They are often found on the ground where they hunt for worms and ants. You can tell that is a male because of the black "Moustache". The females lack the moustache. As for Jewelweed I'm not sure if it will grow in a yard. I've ONLY seen in VERY damp marshy areas. It grows quite well there.

i have jewelweed growing in my yard. It grows next to my garage, in my raised garden in back. The hummers and deer love it. If it p;ops up where you dont want it it's very easy to pull out. I saved some seeds if you want some. lmk.

Wrennie, that would be really nice if you would send me some seeds. I haven't done anything like that on here yet so please let me know how to do it. Momma D

ive got one of those northern flickers hanging around my backyard. i went nuts when i first saw it trying to figure out what it was, finally found it on the internet.

MommaD
I'm pretty new here so, I'll go the way of another forum I go on.
Send me a pm (private message) with your address and I'll mail you some. It grows in relatively cool partly shaded spots here. It may not do well in your summer but spring and fall it should do well.

Here is a picture I took a couple of hours ago of Trumpet Vine (also known as Trumpet Creeper) in full bloom.

TRUMPET VINE


No Hummers were present although I did see a flock of Cedar Waxwings, a Female Eastern Bluebird on the nest, and some sparrows, either Field Sparrows or Chipping Sparrows. I think the former.

Very nice picture, Thorny!

Ours doesn't bloom until August!

All the trumpet I see around here is orange.
I like the yellow.

Here is a close-up of some Trumpet Vine I took this morning:

TRUMPET VINE

Thornius, I have one of these in a pot because I know they can be invasive. It really doesn't want to be in the pot, I can tell (haha). Do you have a lot of problems with them popping up all over? They are beautiful and definitely my choice, but I see too much negative about them. Thanks for your help. PS, the baby blue birds have fledged. Yeah!! Lin

These grow wild in the woods across the road from my house. I walk there every day for exercise and photograph birds and other items of interest. Since they are not in yards they don't take anything over and they add a lot of color and interest to the woods.

Isaw a nest box with a Momma Bluebird on the nest inside about 50 feet from the above Trumpet Vine. I will keep my eye on the nest unobtrusively over the next few months.

Here is a hummer i snapped this evening
hope u can see it.
bettyboop1948
might be too small not close enough

man i havent seen one yet and my feeders are untouched. but im in a somewhat urban area so i guess they wont get here until they crowd each other out of the country side. they were thick here last year but it was a bit later in the year when i noticed em. come to think of it,i saw my first one when i was sitting in my boat at a dock on bull shoals somewhere around the second week of may. when i got home a week later
and was sitting on my front porch,i had one visit my feeder right above me. i was afraid to move my head for a better look for fear of scaring it off. after that ,they came more and more,eventually turning my porch into a war zone!

Porter here is a painting done by an Anthropomorphic artist named Dark Natasha. Anthropomorphic artists depict animals with human characteristics (Bugs Bunny for example). Dark Natasha did this painting to portray the warlike nature of Hummingbirds which are among some of the most aggressive birds in the world.

AGGRESSIVE HUMMERS

I saw my first indigo bunting today!

I haven't seen or heard any yet this year but should any day now. The last few days my yard has been invaded by swarms of Cedar Waxwings.

Our new house has a lovely trumpet vine growing up a big, sturdy trellis. It also has about 7,955 volunteers all over the yard!!! Well, probably not quite that many, but I have enough for half the township. I'll be digging them up and giving them away to friends and family, so they can have some fun, too!

Yesterday I saw one of the yellow butterflies that looks a lot like a monarch it was so pretty and it hung around so that the elders could see it too. I love all the butterflies and birds that are comming to visit. Someday maybe a humming bird will come too.

Tk, Put out a hummer feeder and look for the hummers to start coming in about two weeks to one month. You will mostly get females and young at that time as many of the males have already migrated. Hummingbirds come most often from July to October after the initial arrival in April and May. The rest of the time they are raising their young.

Hi Thorny,

My last roommate broke my hummingbird feeder and I don't have the cash to replace it. But I do have a cardinal vine growing so maybe that will get something going. I do have bees galore this year because of the hollyhocks. I had no idea there were that many bees in the neighborhood. And today I got a very special suprise. I had one of the brown doves in the garden. She didn't stay more than a minute but I was so glad to see here. I love doves. I also have those black shiny birds "gackles" (?). Unfortunately none of these birds sit still for pictures. Althought one of the two squirrels that are around now are pretty tame.

I'm loving all the wildlife.

The black shiny birds are probably Common Grackles. I have about 20 in my yard. They empty my feeders daily.

COMMON GRACKLE

Wow Thorny,

Your pictures are amazing. My birds don't have the white ring around their eyes. Are they still grackles?

tkhooper
The ring is really it's eye color and yellow. I assume sunlight or flash makes it look white in Thornys picture. Lemme' look now.... *flip page**...... **flip page**...here we go... The boat tailed Grackles range is on the Virginia shore. I don't know where you are. But depending on ight and the angle you're looking from the Commons eye may not show that 'ring'.

LOL! Tee hee!!
The first time BF was with me when I was hanging a hummingbird feeder, he asiked how long till they come. I told him "a few days maybe." With the feeder still in my hand on the way to its hook a hummer flew around me for a look. Made me look dumb that little bird did! LOL! "Or today" I said.

The white IS the eye. It is actually yellow. The light conditions at the time I took the picture made the eye look white. Here is a really CREEPY picture I took the same day of a Grackle that REALLY shows the whites of its eyes, TK (don't shoot 'til you see it!)

SPOOKY GRACKLE

That is weird looking, your right. I sure am enjoying all the birds and butterflies in my garden this year. I'm not to sure about the bees though. Never new hollyhocks were so prone to them.

I like the bees too. When it gets so hot that the birds go dormant, we birders switch over to butterfly and insect photography until the birds become active again.

For the 1st time in 38 years of living here, we have a humming bird coming to our house. I've had sightings before but that was it. But this little girl keeps coming back day after day and it's so much fun watching her. My neighbor has a feeder, but she doesn't go to it. She likes the honey suckle and the blue flowers on my coleus. I'm just so excited! Does anyone know, it she would be nesting at this time of year? Sure would be neat if there would be more coming along later!!!! Sue

The Ruby-Throateds are done nesting for the year. They start to nest in Mid to Late May and start coming back to the feeders by the first of July. From the first of July until they migrate are the best times to see them. As far as I know they lay only one batch of eggs a year. I've personally seen only ONE hummingbird nest in 18 years of birding.

Caught this beauty sleeping this morning...

That's beautiful , Rosie!

Here's a different one I found today. As Thorny would say, "It's a lifer for me!"

OMG - that picture is AMAZING Rosie!!!

mel - yours looks so velvety soft!

My best guess is an anglewing, question mark butterfly.???????/ Anyone else know??

Mel, that is a beauty...looks like velour. Do you know what kind it is?

Great shot Mel!

Yup, for sure it's the question mark butterfly!

Lovely Queen visitor...

WOW that's great! I'vw never seen one of those. Are they huge?

Gailo, the Queen is about the same size as the Monarch. I was so shocked to see her, especially on that particular plant. I have very few red blooming plants and that one red salvia had crept into that bed, thanks to the birds I guess, and that was the plant the Queen chose.

How pretty!!

Rosie - gorgeous! Love the framework around the picture!

TYVM I framed that with a little, free imaging program, Irfanview.

I use it for a lot of editing, etc. on my digital pictures and graphics.

This year I planted northern sea oats and have been fighting the heat and drought to keep it alive. This morning I was rewarded by having a little shorebird rest on the bulkhead next to the sea oats. I hope they establish themselves so I won't have to do so much for them. After all they usually live on beaches right?

I found out the bird is a spotted sandpiper. I think Tropical Depression Ernesto brought it here. I have seen it for 3 days now. It walks up and down that board on the bulkhead and eats bugs.

My daughter caught this shot of an eagle the other day!

That's AWESOME, mel!!!

I miss seeing them around - we saw them often when we lived in Alaska -
they are so majestic, aren't they???

There have been articles in our local paper that they have returned to the other side of our county - along the Hudson River towns. I'd love to be able to see one up close again. They had some wonderful shots in the paper - guess the time has to be just right here.

Do you see them often there?

There are so many more here now!!!! I just love to watch them soar and perch! They are an amazing creature, for sure!