How to Make a Backyard Bird Garden
15 ways to attract beautiful birds and songs to your yard, and 10+ more bird conservation tips from the National Audubon Society.
Source:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/
Give Your Hummingbird a Sugar Fix
Cost: $13 for a basic hummingbird feeder.
Hummingbirds (like the Anna's hummingbird pictured here) have an enormous appetite -- greater than any other bird, relative to their size. You can help them by putting up and maintaining a hummingbird feeder filled with fresh sugar water. (Recipe: Take one part sugar to four parts water, bring barely to a boil then simmer for about two minutes. Cool and serve.) This solution can spoil rapidly in hot weather, so feeders should be cleaned thoroughly and refilled every two days when the temperature rises. (And don't use soap when you clean your feeder -- it can make birds sick.)
Invest in Beauty: Attract Hummingbirds With Native Plants
Cost: Pack of five different hummingbird plants: about $40. (The moment the first hummingbird appears in your yard: priceless.)
Hummingbirds -- like this gorgeous ruby-throated hummingbird -- are tiny, but boast the fastest wingbeat and the largest appetites of all birds. Suffering from habitat loss and pesticide use, hummingbirds can use a hand. You can help make your yard a sanctuary for them by planting native and noninvasive flowering plants that they like, such as hummingbird mint, columbine, hummingbird trumpet, and beardtongue.
To learn more about hummingbirds and how to get them in your yard, check out Attracting Hummingbirds and Orioles, by Dr. Stephen W. Kress, Audubon's Vice President for Bird Conservation.
Garden in Layers
Cost: Depends on what plants and trees cost in your area. Find sources of native plants through the North American Native Plant Society.
Create multilayered communities of plants to mimic natural habitats: provide canopy trees, mid and understory shrubs, grasses and annuals. Many birds forage and nest high in the branches of native trees. Thick, shrubs provide cover for birds that stay closer to the ground such as quail, sparrows and thrashers.
Make Your Garden into a Bird Cafe
Cost: You might save some money by decreasing the amount you spend on fertilizer and pest control.
Nothing beats native vegetation to feed the birds of your area. If you plant a variety of native plants, they can provide birds with food at different times of the year in the form of fruit and seeds. Native plants also are home to tasty invertebrates like bugs and spiders.
Save a Hawk (With Your Hands)
Cost: This will save you money if you choose elbow grease over chemicals.
Choose nontoxic alternatives to pesticides and herbicides to keep your lawn, garden and local ecosystems healthy.
An estimated seven million birds die each year because of exposure to lawn pesticides. (In 1995, nearly 6,000 Swainsons hawks -- like the one pictured here -- died from pesticide poisoning!) Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers all have harmful effects on people and the environment. Consider planting native species (which are less likely to succumb to pests than exotics) and using natural and less-toxic gardening methods, such as traps, lures, soap and oil sprays, microbes, botanical insecticides and perhaps the best tool of all ... your hands.
Plant a Native Shade Tree
Cost: Depends on the size of tree sapling you buy. Trees can cost anywhere from nothing (look for community sapling giveaways) to $250 or more (for nursery ornamentals).
Ah, shade trees. Their benefits are innumerable. (Shade, for example.) Not only can they help absorb greenhouse gases, keep a home cooler in the summer, and provide climbing fun, but they also are also excellent perching spots for many bird species. Eastern screech owls and great-crested flycatchers use them as hunting perches. Northern flickers will roost in them. And Carolina chickadees will feast on insects on them.
Do your research before buying or planting a tree to find out what species are native to your area, and where and how to plant your sapling. See this USDA tree planting guide for more information.
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/
Clean the Dirty Birds
Cost: $20 or so -- or cheaper if you make your own.
Putting seed in your yard will attract only seed-eating birds, but most birds are attracted to bird baths. Birds drink and bathe in shallow water, sometimes more than once a day. For the thrill of seeing a baby robin taking its first bath in your backyard, provide a bird bath or shallow pond away from cover, so birds can see if they’re in danger. Keep water clean and free of mosquito larvae by changing it every few days.
Attack Aliens With Your Hands
Cost: Depends on how you remove the aliens. The best method is also free: your hands!
Chances are you have alien -- non-native -- invasive plant species in your yard. Maybe it's Japanese honeysuckle, or a patch of garlic mustard. The increase of non-native plants has been linked to the decline of songbirds; robin and thrush nests located in non-native shrubs and trees appear to be preyed upon more than those that nest in native habitat.
Old-fashioned hand-pulling may be the most effective way to remove invasive plants. You’ll have most success in eliminating your invasive infestation if you pull the plants before they set seed. Take care to try and remove the entire root system; several species can sprout simply from pieces of root left behind.
Make Good Neighbors
Cost: Free!
When you and your neighbors join together to create habitat, the impact of your individual efforts will be multiplied many times over. Work with neighbors to encourage habitat protection across property lines. Screen fence lines with native shrubs to create wildlife corridors. Work with local water protection agencies to maintain streamside vegetation. Your combined efforts can create a healthy refuge for wildlife and people by connecting isolated patches of habitat.
Make Your Yard More Musical: Feed a Sparrow
Cost: One 2.5lb bag of organic millet seed is about $10.
Song sparrows, with their range of songs and pips, are wonderful birds to hear. To attract them, scatter millet or other small commercial seed on ground near bushes or other cover (to stay safe, they won’t forage more than 30 feet from cover). You can also encourage them by planting or maintaining native forbs (like smartweed, ragweed, pigweed, and knotweed) and grasses under and around bushes and shrubs.
Leave a Mess
Cost: Free! And easy!
Birds love snags and brush! Leave snags for nesting places (birds like northern flickers make their nest cavities in dead or diseased tree trunks or large branches) and stack downed tree limbs to create a brush pile, which is a great source of cover for birds during bad weather. Let the flowers of annuals dry so that birds can find the seeds, and drop dead flower heads in the garden where they remain available to birds and provide mulch.
Stop the Decline of Bewick's Wren
Cost: A ready-made nest box will set you back around $30, but you can make your own.
Bewick’s wrens were once common across the United States, but have dramatically declined in the east. You can help keep their populations in the west healthy by providing nest boxes mounted 5-10 feet high on a tree in or near a brushy area. (Note that this will only work in areas where house wrens are not found; house wrens will almost always out-compete Bewick’s wrens.) Nest boxes should be at least 4 x 4 inches wide and 10 inches deep with a 1-1/8 inch entrance hole.
Keep Water Clean With Native Grasses
Cost: $7-$16 per pound of native grass seed.
The pollution that flows out of your yard and neighborhood into local streams and rivers can harm birds, such as the endangered whooping crane. Patch bare soil areas in your yard with native grasses to prevent erosion, sweep sidewalks and driveways instead of hosing them down, and use a funnel when you fill your lawnmower.
Make Your Windows Visible to Birds
Cost: Free
Windows, of all things, are one of the greatest threats to migratory birds like cedar waxwings. Up to a billion birds, from hummingbirds to hawks, die every year when they mistake glass windows for open space and fly into them.
To prevent that ominous thud! at your house, put up screen windows and close drapes and blinds when you leave the house. Don’t rely on decals; they are only useful if they are spaced close to each other to be effective -- at most two inches apart horizontally, and four inches apart vertically. If you have bird feeders, place them either within three feet of the house (so birds can't pick up enough speed to hurt themselves), or more than 30 feet away (so birds can see that the window is part of the house).
Keep Kitty Contained
Cost: Free! In fact, you’ll probably save on vet bills.
They’re excellent companions to humans, but cats roaming outdoors can be blamed for over 500 million bird deaths a year. Catbirds may sound like cats, but they don’t like cats. Keeping cats indoors not only spares birds but can benefit the cats, too, as they’re protected from disease, parasites, poison, and accidents. According to the American Humane Society, cats that are allowed to roam outside live an average of just three years, while indoor cats on average reach 15 years.
Make a Little Gravel Go a Long Way for a Nighthawk
Cost: Will vary depending on gravel or peastone costs in your area.
Nighthawks, those lovely birds that swoop around city skies at night, flashing the white bands under their wings, have declined in numbers by about 50 percent over the last 40 years. Since their decline has coincided with a decline in gravel roofs, on which nighthawks often nest, wildlife biologists have been experimenting with creating gravel nest pads on roofs. You can do it, too! Create a 9' x 9' gravel pad on your roof (around 14 bucketfuls), or encourage local builders to install them.
Be a Landlord to Birds of Prey: Build a Nest Box
Cost: Around $10-$20 for the materials
Several birds of prey will nest in boxes given the chance. To attract kestrels, our smallest falcons, place a nest box at least 10 feet high on a tree or pole in the middle of an open space like a field or park (with permission!). Boxes should be about 17 x 8 x 10 inches with a 3-inch diameter entrance hole. The bottom of the nest box should be covered with wood shavings to cushion and insulate eggs. The American kestral chicks shown here are just 24 days old!
To attract barn owls, which will keep small rodent populations down, install nest boxes in rafters of open barns, on or in other open out-buildings, or on poles in open areas. The boxes should be much bigger -- 36 x 24 x 24 inches, with a 10 x 8-inch square opening, and an adjacent ledge for young to roost on as they mature.
Become Important to an Important Bird Area
Cost: Free!
Important Bird Areas are sites that provide essential habitat for one or more species of bird. They include sites for breeding, wintering, and/or migrating birds, and they may be a few acres or thousands of acres. (Audubon Connecticut, for example, helped convert a 10-acre undeveloped area in the city of Stamford into an Important Bird Area for purple martins -- pictured here -- and eastern screech owls.) Every state has Important Bird Areas, and they need your help removing invasive species, restoring native plants, and monitoring bird populations.
Contact your state’s Important Bird Area coordinator to see how you can help out in a beautiful spot.
http://www.audubon.org/bird/
Root for the Orioles (Even if You're a Yankee Fan)
Cost: A standard oriole nectar feeder costs around $16; one made from recycled plastic costs around $30.
The bright orange and black uniforms -- sorry, feathers! -- sported by Baltimore orioles (in the east) and Bullock’s orioles (in the west) make them an absolute delight to spot in your yard. Attract orioles with a fruit, jelly and nectar feeder. You might also consider planting fruit-bearing trees and shrubs like mulberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries and figs –- delicious for you and for orioles
Sign the Birds and Climate Petition
Cost: Free!
Of course, protecting birds is just one of many reasons to take action on global warming. But birds have given us one of the earliest indications that global warming is happening and that it’s serious. Audubon found that over half of the bird species found in winter in North America have shifted significantly northward in the past 40 years. Purple finches have moved their wintering grounds north by an extraordinary 433 miles in the past four decades.
It’s time to take a stand! Sign the petition at birdsandclimate.org to ask your lawmakers to take a stand to reduce global warming by 80 percent by 2050.
Keep Bobwhites Bobbing: Maintain Open Fields
Cost: Free!
Northern bobwhites, once common in the grasslands of the south and southeast, have declined by a shocking 82% in the last 40 years, mostly because of a decline in habitat. You can help by maintaining fields or meadows of native warm summer grasses. Manage grasslands with fire, grazing, or mowing every few years so that they don’t become overgrown.
You can also find a U.S. Department of Agriculture Service Center in your area and work with them to help protect bobwhites and other grassland birds.
http://offices.sc.egov.usda.
Become a Citizen Scientist
Cost: Free!
Help scientists keep tabs on the status of birds by monitoring the birds in your neighborhood and submitting what you find to eBird. You may not think your observations of the cardinals in your area can add up to much, but just recently, Audubon released the results of a 40-year study conducted by citizen scientists just like you! The study indicated that climate change is already affecting over half of North American bird species.
Submit your bird watching observations at ebird.org any time, or join thousands of others taking part in the annual Christmas Bird Count, February’s Great Backyard Bird Count, or other fun citizen science projects.
Recycle (It's Easier Than Performing the Heimlich on an Arctic Tern)
Cost: Free!
Each year, hundreds of thousands of birds become poisoned or have their digestive tracts obstructed after eating small pieces of plastic. Discarded pieces of plastic wash down drains, into rivers and out to sea, where terns, puffins and gulls can eat them. Make sure you recycle plastic whenever possible, and otherwise properly dispose of plastic items after you’re done with them. (Better yet: avoid buying things that use unnecessary plastic.)
Make Your Chimney Hospitable to Chimney Swifts
Cost: Will vary with the cost of cleaning your chimney.
Chimney swifts -- excellent birds to have around because they consume one-third of their weight in insects like mosquitoes daily -- are on the decline. You can help by making your chimney as habitable as possible for them.
Clean your chimney in March, and leave masonry or clay flue-tile chimneys uncapped from March through October to allow entrance by nesting and roosting swifts. Keep the damper closed so nestlings don’t wind up in your fireplace. (If you have a metal roof, you should cap it permanently -- they’re too slippery for chimney swifts or any other wildlife to use.)
Fight Acid Rain With Your Pen (This Wood Thrush Will Thank You)
Cost: Free!
Many birds -- like wood thrushes -- are affected by acid rain, which indirectly weakens the birds’ egg shells. Ask your representatives to support tougher air pollution controls, to oppose the development of new coal-fired power plants (which produce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, leading in turn to acid rain), and to support the development of cleaner alternatives to coal. (Of course, in addition to bird conservation there are many other good reasons to demand air pollution controls, including public health.)
Turn Out the Lights, and Save a Songbird (or Several Million)
Cost: Free! And you’ll save money on energy costs.
This tip applies to anyone, but it’s especially relevant to those living or working in tall buildings. Turn out the lights at night! Songbirds like bobolinks and hermit thrushes use constellations to guide them on their annual migrations, but bright lights in urban areas short-circuit their ability to steer. Every year millions crash into buildings and die. Close your curtains and blinds at night, turn out lights, and get your building manager to turn out lights that aren’t being used. Of course, this also helps reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
Caffeinate With Shade-Grown Coffee
Cost: $8.75 a pound, or so
Drink shade-grown coffee! Each time you purchase shade-grown coffee, you're putting in a word for healthy growing practices.
Shade-grown coffee plantations of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and Colombia provide critical habitat for birds that have lost their tropical forest homes. They also provide winter habitat for some neotropical migrant birds like hummingbirds, orioles, tanagers, and barn swallows, which breed in summer in North America.
Look for shade-grown coffee in markets, ask for it at your local café, and shop for it online. (Audubon sells its own Premium Shade Grown Coffee.)
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