Planning and Planting for Birds/How to Make your Yard Bird-Friendly:
Choose Native Plants: penstemons, lupines, desert mallow, choke cherry, common yarrow, rudbeckia hurts, blue gramma grass
Leave the seeds: don’t dead head all flowering plants at season’s end.
Build a brush pile.
Lay off herbicides and pesticides.
As you select plantings, think about providing the following food groups:
Bugs: Native trees such scrub oak, aspen, native herbaceous plants such as golden rod, milkweed and sunflowers host many caterpillar species that are a protein source for birds, especially during the breeding season.
Fruit: Many shrubs and small trees provide berries that ripen at different times: serviceberry, chokecherry, red twigged dogwood and ground holly/mahonia.
Nuts and seeds: Native sunflowers, asters, and coneflowers produce loads of tiny seeds that are finch and sparrow favorites.
Nectar: Red tubular flowers such as native Columbine, penstemon and honeysuckle serve up nectar for hummingbirds. Flowers in the aster family such as coneflowers, asters, and Joe-Pye weed are very attractive to insect pollinators like butterflies, moths and bees, in addition to providing seeds.
Plan your Bird Habitat:
Take stock of the plants you already have. If you need help, check the NATIVE PLANTS DATABASE.
Know the basics about your area: sunny or shady/, wet or dry/ what’s your soil like?
Map it out: Measure your planting space and then either draw it out on paper or walk your garden bed, to determine what extra plants you need.
Create “habitat layers”: large canopy trees, shrubs and small trees, herbaceous plants, decaying leaves, wood detritus and soil
Lose some lawn
Cluster plants in masses: group 5 or more of the same plant species together. It’s favored by pollinators.
Think about height.
Leave some room.
Remember the need for water. Include hollowed boulders that catch rainwater or a bird bath. Consider a fountain feature.
Attracting Birds:
Choke Cherry
Scrub Oak
Blue Gramma Grass
Aspen
Red Twigged Dogwood
Service Berry
Elderberry
Honeysuckle
Colorado Blue Spruce
Penstemons: Beard’s Tongue
Lupines
Yarrow
Rudbeckia
Golden Rod/Solidago
Sun Flowers
Milk Weed
Asters
Coneflowers
Columbine (especially red
Joe-Pye Weed
Rosa Woodsii
Cosmos
Monarda
Salvia
