Gardening for Birds

Our garden begins a few steps outside our back door, and a winding path takes me past a tart cherry tree, under the canopy of a pear, along the edge of a small pond, and under the rustling leaves of mature trees. It is late summer, and the dappled light and sounds of flowing water from the waterfall above the pond are soothing. Garlic chives, mint, anise hyssop, lemon balm, ferns, and sunflowers grow in the understory. The path takes me between a bed of strawberries on the left and a bed of lettuce, kale, beets, and basil on the right.  I cross over the strawberries and stand next to eight-foot-tall tomato plants.  

I eat cherry tomatoes by the handful as I take in the scene. The call of a chickadee catches my attention. She has perched in an apple tree and her bill is full of caterpillars. She is on her way to a nest box on the cucumber trellis, where a noisy brood of nestlings awaits their next meal. As I am watching the chickadee, I hear a faint sound that does not register at first. Then, I realize it is the thrum of a hummingbird flying overhead. I look up to see her land on top of an elderberry plant. She closes her eyes and takes a quick nap.  

A flash of yellow and the familiar call of an American goldfinch shift my attention over the raspberry patch where volunteer sunflowers are a favorite food for the goldfinches. Three goldfinches are busy inspecting flower heads in different stages of maturity. They start prepping each head before it is ripe by pulling the tiny disc flowers off of each seed. Once the flowers are removed, they test the seeds to see if they are ripe.  

As I watch the goldfinches, one of the smallest and most conspicuous garden residents arrives on the scene: a house wren. Our garden produces two to three clutches of house wrens per year. Their energy, attitude, and near-constant pouring forth of a bright and bubbly song are a fixture in the garden. I have been watching this same group of birds for weeks. We have a relationship and a routine. They observe me as much as I observe them. This is deeply engaging and satisfying.  

My garden also contains surprises. A shadow flashes across the ground and I catch a glimpse of two Cooper’s Hawks chasing each other as they pass by at stunningly high speed. Right before they disappear into the canopy of a large Red Oak, they bank and catch the sunlight on their white undersides. They are thrown into sharp relief. For a split second, they are frozen in the air, and my mind registers shining silhouettes. All of these encounters happen over the course of 3 minutes. This is a typical morning in the garden. 

You can hear the birds in our yard from half a block away. The intensity and diversity of bird songs and calls pick up as you get close. If you have an ear for birds, it becomes clear that one of these yards is not like the others. The calls of Carolina Wrens and Eastern Towhees hint at the dense cover we have created behind our house.

 The perimeter of our backyard consists of a dense array of small trees, shrubs, vines, and native woodland plants growing under and between mature Black Oaks, Silver Maples, Honey Locusts, Norway Spruce, Red Oak, and Basswood. Most of the yard is devoted to a large vegetable garden that we have been slowly filling with perennial plants. These include plants that produce food for people and cover and food for birds. Elderberry, Black Currant, Serviceberry, Clove Currant, Grape, Apple, Asian Pear, European Pear, Peach, Chestnut, Honeyberry, Raspberry, Black Raspberry, and Gogi Berry are interspersed among beds of vegetables. Herbs are self-seeding in some areas, and small patches of prairie plants provide food and habitat for beneficial insects. 

These diverse plants support an amazing array of insects and this is one of the keys to attracting birds to your yard. We also have a bird feeder, pond, bird bath, and nest boxes throughout both the front and back yards. When you enter this oasis during spring migration, the fruit trees are in bloom. Insects fill the air on warm days, and the birds respond. Flycatchers sally forth, snapping up flying insects. Warblers, vireos, and other migrants venture down from the canopy of mature trees and forage in the fruit trees and shrubs at eye level. 9 am-11 am is peak bird activity on most days. This is when the sun lights up the backyard. Ephemeral waves of birds pass through. 

I enjoy watching birds exhibit natural behavior, especially when they feel safe enough to rest on their long journeys. They can find food in many places, but there are precious few areas that function as true refuges, containing native vegetation, water, and protection from wind, dogs, cats, people, and noise.  

I recently watched two Tennessee Warblers foraging in our peach tree. They perched over the pond and inspected the flowing water below. After about a minute of observing the pond, they dropped down and flew short looping flights over the water, where they dipped a toe in to assess the situation.  Each short flight over the pond was followed by them perching a few inches above the water where they sat and observed the pond at close range. After a few passes, they committed to bathing, and both birds spent several minutes splashing in the shallow water. They remained within inches of each other the entire time.

Another benefit of providing quality habitat for birds is that they tend to linger longer. Some birds will stay for several days, and others will spend most of a day foraging in our garden. When the Orange-crowned Warblers come through in October, they tend to spend a lot of time in our garden. One of the benefits of this is that you get to observe a bird going about its normal routine for extended periods of time. This allows you to learn their behavior and gestalt. At this time of year, we have Nashville, Orange-crowned, and Tennessee Warblers foraging near the ground in our garden. After a day or two of observing them, you can identify all three species. The next time you go birding in a natural area, you will carry this experience with you, and that will make identification in the field much easier. You will know birds more deeply than most other birders.

This essay first appeared in a special Birder’s Guide to Gardening issue of the American Birding Association Magazine, which is full of informative articles about native plants, insects, and gardening.