Landscaping for Songbirds

Gardening to attract songbirds requires a larger space than gardening for butterflies and hummingbirds. Songbirds need shelter, nesting sites, water, and year-round food sources.

Songbirds seek shelter in trees, shrubs, dense thickets, and tangles of vines overnight and during inclement weather. In winter, they look for evergreen refuges. Nest boxes, left up over the winter, can also be used for roosting. Species-specific plans for nest boxes can be found online. Installing predator guards will increase the survival rate for baby birds during the nesting season.

A birdbath provides a source of drinking water and a place for a wet bath for birds. Keep your birdbath clean, full, and clear of algae and mosquito larvae. Dust baths are also important for maintaining feathers and managing mites and other parasites. Build a dust bath by providing an area with loose, fine-grained, dry soil (not clay) near a shrub or other hiding spot. This area will need to be kept weed-free.

During the spring and summer, songbirds eat mostly bugs. Baby birds are raised on caterpillars. Plant as many larval host plants as you can to provide the large number of caterpillars required. In the winter, when the supply of bugs is low, songbirds rely on seeds and berries. Plant berry-producing trees and shrubs and leave the seed heads of grasses and perennial forbs up over the winter.

Caterpillars!  It’s what's for dinner!

This new animated video, Chickadees, Caterpillars, and Oaks, Oh My!, highlights just one of the many reasons to Celebrate Virginia’s native trees.

Trees provide essential habitats for pollinators - especially butterflies and moths, birds and mammals.

Just as the Oak spreads its limbs and shelters wildlife, help us spread the video and its important message far and wide! 

Hummingbird Gardens

A hummingbird garden can be set up in containers on a deck or patio or planted in a small to medium yard. Hummingbirds have a few basic needs: Food, water, shelter, and nesting sites.

Hummingbirds need protein in their diet, which comes from small insects and spiders. Baby hummingbirds are raised on insects. The most important thing to provide are native plants that attract insects and a pesticide-free garden.

In addition to insects, adult hummingbirds need some nectar every day. Hummingbirds are drawn to brightly colored, tubular shaped flowers. Choose several species of plants with staggered bloom time so something will always be in bloom.

Nectar from native plants includes traces of proteins, salts, acids, and essential oils in addition to plant sugars. This is better for the birds than sugar water.

If you choose to provide sugar water, you can lure them closer to enjoy watching them:

• Do not buy the red stuff.

• Make your own from ¼ cup cane sugar dissolved in 1 cup of water.

• Do not use other sweeteners such as brown sugar, agave, honey, molasses, or artificial sweeteners.

• Do not add dyes.

• Clean and refill hummingbird feeders every 3-4 days.

Hummingbirds need water for bathing. A mist or shallow basin is best, with only ¼ inch of water.

Hummingbirds need some shade and a place to hide from predators and poor weather and a place to build a nest. A small tree in your garden will fill all these needs. For our region, the Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is the best choice. This tree is also a source of nectar for hummingbirds.

Virginia Native Plants that Attract Hummingbirds (include the following):

Trees:
Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)

Shrubs:
New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus)
Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
Pinxter Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides)

Vines:
Trumpet Creeper (Campsis radicans)
Vasevine (Clematis viorna)
Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)

Forbs:
Milkweeds (Asclepias incarnada, A. syriaca, A. tuberosa)
White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra)
Curlyheads (Clematis ochrleuca)
American Alumroot (Heuchera americana)
Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)
Dwarf Iris (Iris verna)
Grass-leaf Blazing Star (Liatris pilosa)
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis)
Allegheny Monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens)
Smooth Beardtongue (Penstemon laevigatus)
Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
Lyre Leaf Sage (Salvia lyrata)
Fire Pink (Silene virginica)
Starry Rosinweed (Silphium asteriscus)
Goldenrods (Solidago ssp.)
Canada Germander (Teucrium canadense)
New York Ironweed (Vernonia noveboraceensis)

Note: There may be more species native to your individual county.

What does it take to provide sanctuary for birds?

The first requirement is that the plants be native to the local ecosystem. This is because the diet of baby birds consists primarily of caterpillars, and most caterpillars can only eat the plants with which they evolved. By far the biggest source of food for caterpillars is the leaves of large native shade trees, by virtue of their immense canopy compared to smaller plants.

The second requirement is to provide food for the adults. Adult birds also require caterpillars and other bugs for protein. They also need the seeds and fruits from the smaller native trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers that are tailor-made for their nutritional needs (unlike those of many non-native plants.) [Link provided is to Plant NOVA Natives webpage and species, but many are common across campaigns - check your regional plant guide]. Different bird species feed and nest at different heights from the ground, so native plants are needed at all levels. You may notice, for example, the preference of sparrows and robins for the ground layer, bluebirds for the shrubs, bluejays higher still, and woodpeckers in the canopy. (The fact that some birds require the lower levels is the reason why it is so imperative to keep cats indoors.)

Another reason to install native plants at the ground layer is that many of those caterpillars feeding up in the trees spend part of their life cycles sheltering on the ground. They cannot find the habitat they need in mounds of mulch, not to mention in lawns where they get chopped up by lawn mowers. What does provide shelter is native perennials and dead leaves.  So once you have your trees and shrubs in place, you can have the fun of exploring the numerous native groundcover options, gradually expanding the landing pad out to the drip line as the trees grow.

Excerpt from the Plant NOVA Natives Campaign Monthly Article “Build a Mini Bird Sanctuary”