Wild birds can help you by controlling weeds and pests and pollinating your plants, and you can benefit the birds by creating a welcoming refuge from their shrinking natural habitats. Provide plenty of cover, food, and water, and birds will gladly visit your garden. Plant bird-friendly plants like berries, avoid using pesticides, and ensure that feeders are farther than 30 feet or closer than 3 feet to your windows, to avoid collisions. Consider giving your cat a brightly colored collar with a bell, so that it can’t sneak up on the birds.
Key Takeaways:
- A garden that birds visit has a life of its own. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your borders are or how finely shaped your topiary is, a garden with no wild, feathered visitors is a duller place than one that lures in flocks.
- Wild birds need help, and as their natural habitats shrink and disappear, gardens become havens. By making your garden a more welcoming place, you can become part of a network of garden refuges that help them survive and thrive.
- Regularly feeding the birds is the first, most important thing you can do to draw them into your garden. Once you start feeding birds, regularly keep doing it because birds can become dependent on you as a source of food, and you don’t want them to waste precious energy visiting an empty feeding station.
“Wild birds need help, and as their natural habitats shrink and disappear, gardens become havens.”