How to Attract Wild Birds to an Organic Garden

Create a Habitat in the Landscape that Makes Bird Watching Easy

Nov 17, 2008

Wild birds can form a partnership with organic gardeners: we give them food and shelter and they give us song and beauty.

Many organic gardeners discover by accident that their hobby gives life to a secondary passion: bird watching. This happens the first time the gardener sees a gold finch perched on a coneflower, or when we observe a tomato hornworm struggling in a robin’s beak. Make the organic garden welcoming to wild birds with appealing food and shelter options.

Tolerate a Few Garden Pests

Many birds supplement their diets with protein-rich insects, so organic gardeners must allow a few insects to make their homes amongst the flowers and vegetables. Even organically approved sprays can be harmful to bird populations, so read the product label carefully before using in areas that birds frequent. Consider using insect controls that don’t interfere with wild bird feeding habits, such as handpicking, row covers, or other physical controls.

Although some wild birds can be pests to organic gardeners, especially in orchards and berry patches, several common garden species feed largely on insects. Organic gardeners should welcome bluebirds, chickadees, wrens, and barn swallows. Robins and starlings are also active insectivores, but may dine on fruit as well.

Grow Seed Producing Flowers

Organic gardeners who grow the flowers birds relish may never have to fill a single birdfeeder. Amaranth, millet, safflower, sunflowers, and coneflowers all produce oil-rich seeds that attract wild birds. Some flowers that gardeners commonly deadhead throughout the growing season also provide seeds for birds, so stop deadheading cosmos, zinnias, and coreopsis in late August to ensure a winter crop of natural food.

Provide Shelter for Birds

Not all birds desire trees for nest building. Several common North American birds, such as cardinals, like to build their nests in dense shrubbery or hedges. Include low-care specimens in the organic garden that provide cover as well as beauty, such as honeysuckle, camellias, lilacs, or hawthorn.

Placement of shrubs around birdfeeders is critical. Although birds like to flit back and forth from the branches of trees to feeding stations, planting dense shrubbery around birdfeeders may conceal predators, like housecats. Blow the predator’s cover by keeping feeders at least 10 feet away from shrubs.

Organic gardeners who live in northern climates may include some evergreen trees or shrubs to protect wild birds on frigid winter nights. If possible, plant evergreens on the southern side of the property or in an area sheltered from the wind. A large brush pile left undisturbed in the corner of the yard may also serve as a roosting spot for birds.

Lure Birds to the Container Garden

It’s easy to attract butterflies to a small stand of cosmos on a sunny deck, but avian visitors are less likely to hang around a small garden space without some special features just for them. Wild birds like to take dust baths in the summer to control parasites, so place a shallow dish filled with ashes or sand amongst your flowering plants. A glossy ceramic dish filled with fresh water daily will serve as a beacon for birds any time of the year, as even birds not normally attracted to feeders seek water for drinking and bathing.

The copyright of the article How to Attract Wild Birds to an Organic Garden in Organic Gardens is owned by Jamie McIntosh. Permission to republish How to Attract Wild Birds to an Organic Garden in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.