Georgia Magazine - August 2017 - 36
For the birds!
Birdscaping your garden
BY HELEN NEWLING LAWSON
ant a simple way to bring more color
and life to your garden? Make your
"Attracting birds to your backyard is
relatively straightforward," says Peter Gordon, director of education for the Elachee
Nature Science Center in Gainesville. "All
animals need food, water for drinking and
bathing, and a good, secure place to roost for
the night, hide from predators or build a nest."
Even the smallest effort can pay off almost immediately. Put out a dish of clean water and you'll be
amazed at how quickly it will draw a thirsty bird.
Now plant a shrub nearby. Soon it will be filled with
more birds waiting in line for their turn for a drink. Choose
a shrub that produces fruit, such as wax myrtle (Morella
spp.) or chokeberry (Aronia spp.), and the birds can fuel
up while they wait. Add a larger tree or nest box, and they
will have a place to raise a family. Plant a colorful butterfly-host plant, such as brown-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia
triloba), and they'll have caterpillars to feed their babies-
assuming you don't spray your yard with insecticides.
And that's it. Now your yard has everything birds need
to survive and create future generations.
Best of all, you'll be helping other beneficial, at-risk
garden visitors, including bees, butterflies and other pollinators; frogs; and ladybugs and other insects. This variety
of life in your garden adds up to something very important: biodiversity.
Home gardens that help wildlife not only bring nature's beauty closer to us but also are becoming vital to
birds' survival. When forests, meadows and wetlands are
replaced by subdivisions and shopping malls, the natural
resources that birds rely on are eliminated, and it shows in
their dwindling populations.
As natural, open spaces disappear, it becomes increasingly important to look at our own landscapes as oases of
biodiversity. The Connect to Protect program at the State
Botanical Garden of Georgia (SBGG) in Athens acknowledges the importance of a network of individual plantings.
This initiative encourages people to plant small,
native gardens in urban and suburban landscapes and
makes low-cost native grasses and wildflowers available to
"Planting small amounts of habitat for insects and
pollinators in particular can have an impact on the biodiversity of our community," says Heather Alley, conserva-
Above: Compact varieties of blueberries, like 'Blue Suede,' allow you
to grow treats for birds in the smallest spaces-even containers!
Inset: The wood thrush is one of the hundreds of species that
migrate here from Central and South America.
tion horticulturalist for the SBGG. "One of the lessons is
that native plants attract insects ... and birds need insects
The Atlanta Audubon Society calls gardens that feature native plants "recharge stations." They give birds
places to rest and nest. This can be especially valuable to
migrating species, which urgently need safe places to
feed along their journey.
Why are native plants so important? They have
evolved along with the birds that rely on them and provide food in the form of seeds, berries, nectar or insects.
"Think of the plants in your yard as bird feeders,"
says Doug Tallamy, University of Delaware professor and
author of "Bringing Nature Home" and "The Living Landscape."
Most native grasses need full sun, but river oats
(Chasmanthium latifolium) are a shade-tolerant option
with gorgeous seed heads. Blueberries are as delicious to
More online at www.georgiamagazine.org