BIRDS IN OUR YARDS

You may see these birds in YOUR backyard!

Eastern Bluebird, Male

What is it that birdwatchers know that we are just beginning to discover? It is fun to watch birds! Birds are beautiful, funny, entertaining, smart, and lovable. You can create a bird sanctuary in your yard for your feathery friends.

Bird Island in Your Backyard

Many backyard birds like to nest in man-made birdhouses.

Click here to see more houses for your backyard birds!

Hummingbird

Click here to see our beautiful bird jewelry boxes!

 Islands are areas of vegetation in your yard that link to other areas of vegetation. A bird can fly from one island to the next, and feel safe. Hawks will go after songbirds and so they need hiding places. We have invited birds into our yard by providing islands from the street through the front and side yards and into the back yard where the feeders are set up. They can fly from a neighbor's yard in relative comfort. 

Red Bellied Woodpecker, Male

Red Bellied Woodpecker, Female

It is easy to erect a post in some quick-drying cement, and attach plant hangers - this also works in very small backyard spaces.  Hang bird feeders, thistle feeders, seed cakes, and suet there.  Provide a couple of bushes around the base of the post, so birds can have a place to feel safe, and nearby small trees for perching while awaiting their turns.  Add a birdbath for water, and another for seeds for birds that are not comfortable at the smaller feeders, and you have a real Bird Island!

Sparrow

In our back yard we created "BIRD ISLAND" a place set aside just for the birds! It is a medium size peanut-shaped area (about 12 feet long and about 6 feet at the widest part), but yours can be any shape or size, as long as it contains 3 things: food, water, and cover.

Northern Cardinal, Male

Robin

Titmouse

Yellow Rumped Warbler, back

Yellow Rumped Warbler, front

Yellow Rumped Warbler

FOOD

We installed a post in one end of the peanut-shaped area. On that post we attached plant hangers to hold feeders - thistle for the finches, nutcake in wire basket for woodpeckers, nuthatches, titmice, finches and wrens who can hang on wire or upside down. We also installed a flat shallow cement bird bath to serve as a feeder for birds that need flat surfaces to stand on such as cardinals and doves and blue jays. That feeder gets millet and sunflower seed. A favorite for the jays is peanuts. One blue jay will be sent as scout early in the morning. He will find the peanuts and take one for himself. Then he will begin calling his pals. Six more will come and they will take turns swooping down to get a peanut and take their treasure to a tree to eat. We also have a peach tree planted in bird island. Here you can see how blue jays love to eat peaches in summertime!

Blue Jay

Some food will invariably fall to the ground, and ground feeding birds who like to forage in the grass and dirt will spend their time happily scratching under the bushes. Having a post with feeders as well as a birdbath that serves as seed-holder, and then providing the areas under bushes all serve to give birds a multi-level restaurant, where many varieties can meet comfortably in the same area. We also make sure to have flowers, usually annuals, in bird island in a large tub and along the ground, so that insects are attracted to the area. Birds love to eat bugs.

Rufous-Sided Towhee, Male

WATER

There is a birdbath that we keep 2 inches of water in for bathing. Birds control parasites by bathing, and then the ritual of preening after a bath spreads all-important oil along feathers. Birds drink a lot of water and bathe often. Keep the water clean.

Mourning Dove

SHELTER

Birds will come to your food island if there is nearby shelter. We installed cover right in the island, by surrounding the feeder post with holly bushes that are trimmable and won't grow huge. Cut into the front of the bushes is the water bird bath. In the narrow middle of the island is a small bloodroot dark burgundy Japanese Maple and in the other wide part of the island is a small peach tree, both excellent for perching. Birds tend to prefer "staging areas" such as nearby trees when awaiting their turn at the feeder. Normal pecking order dictates that the larger birds eat first, although smaller birds can be aggressive and steal preferred seating at the dinner table. Our cardinals come for breakfast just before dawn so that they can get theirs first.

 Brown Thrasher

Brown Thrasher

A bird island can be in a small backyard that has nearby trees. Birds will travel through the bushes and trees, getting closer and closer to the food island, until they are comfortable that it is safe to go down. Multiple feeders will ensure that you attract a variety of birds. Good seeds for backyard birds are white millet, black-oil sunflower, and peanuts. They also enjoy suet in fall, winter and spring. There is a wonderful "nut-cake" for a wire basket specially made for woodpeckers that we are able to find at home-supply centers in the bird and nursery department. It attracts red-bellied woodpeckers and downy woodpeckers in our yard, and also white-breasted nuthatches, and wrens.

Goldfinch

Catbird

NESTS

Birds use nests mostly in the spring. They are used for raising babies. Sometimes birds may return to a birdhouse that was previously used for nesting for storm or winter shelter. The birds in your back yard may use a variety of nesting materials including straw, dried grasses, dried leaves, animal hair, bits of yarn and string, lichen, and spider webs.

Many backyard birds like to nest in man-made birdhouses.

Click here to see more houses for your backyard birds!

Carolina Wren Baby in Nest

Each late spring/early summer, we have a Carolina Wren pair take up residence in a hosta plant on our patio near the back door. The nest is deep within the leafy plant, and there is a tunnel built to the outer rim of the flower pot. The parents take turns building the nest, tending the eggs, and then later bringing bugs to the babies. They usually have three to four healthy babies in that flower pot. Since these wrens live in the nearby azalea bushes, this is an ideal spot for raising a family. If you ever walk by a flower pot with a plant in it, and you hear cheeping, you have wren babies in there!

Carolina Wren Baby in Nest

Being Fed by Mother

Carolina Wren, Adult

What foods can you put out that most birds will like?

Black-oil sunflower, white millet, niger thistle, raw peanuts, safflower seed,

cracked corn, suet in winter, and sometimes berries. 

Hummingbirds like nectar, titmice and jays favor raw peanuts in shell.

Keep in mind that woodpeckers and nuthatches and wrens

prefer the wire baskets that hold nut and seed cakes and suet,

while doves and cardinals like their seed in an empty birdbath

or regular birdfeeders.  Sometimes doves don't fit so well

in birdfeeders due to their size.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Two White-Breasted Nuthatches

Cardinals, sparrows, and many more will eat on feeders.

Towhees, thrashers and robins prefer the ground but will o on feeders too.

The best feeder we have is a hanging screen-bottom feeder.

The rain goes right through and there is room for most birds in it.

Hawk

Great American Egret

Duck

Click here to see our beautiful bird jewelry boxes!