By Terre Cooke Chaffin
Oklahoma State University Extension Master Gardener
Birds are finding a new place in our understanding of how they think, how they can protect our garden environments, the extreme measures taken and physical strength required to make annual migrations over thousands of miles. As famed biologist Thomas Lovejoy, quoted in National Geographic magazine in January of this year stated, ‘If you take care of the birds, you take care of most of the big problems of the world.’ Birds play a vital role in pollinating plants, controlling insects and dispersing seeds.
2018 is the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act which laid out national regulations to protect more than 1200 bird species. That said, it seems a good time to learn not only what they do for us, but how we can best attract them to our gardens and landscapes.
Cheryl McIntosh, an Oklahoma County Master Gardener and life-long bird enthusiast, has memories that go back 70 years of sitting outside on a stoop with her mother listening to and identifying birds by their unique calls, shapes and color.
McIntosh’s back yard is an oasis built to provide everything birds need to thrive. If you want birds to live in and around your property there are three essentials: food, shelter and water.
Oklahoma’s Cooperative Extension Service encourages anyone interested in attracting birds to use a diverse selection of plant materials that provide both food and shelter for nesting. Use native plants whenever possible as our native birds are adapted to them and they are resistant to drought, heat and cold. Studies show pesticide use can be diminished as birds will naturally feast on many garden pests and insects.
Any nursery can give good information on what to plant when landscaping for birds. A few tree selections include juniper trees with their plentiful berries, pine trees, hollies and southern magnolias. These trees provide consistent shelter during the winter.
Shrubs like abelian grandiflora, boxwood and oak leaf hydrangeas are good choices for nesting. Many of Oklahoma’s perennial grasses are a good source for nesting material and food.
Honeysuckle, Clematis, grapes and Virginia creeper produce nectar filled flowers and fruit for birds. If you hope to attract hummingbirds, one of nature’s best acrobats, use flowering plants like petunias, foxglove, hardy fuchsia, larkspur and salvia.
McIntosh has been building her bird environment for nearly 30 years and filled it with multiple water features; bird baths decorate the landscape, a koi pond with running water provides room for separate species to get in the rock and bathe, and there are lots of supplemental feeders. If you go the feeder route that’s a whole new learning curve; who likes to perch and eat vs who will fly in and dig a peanut out of a large wired birdfeeder without a landing? Why do hummingbird’s personalities dictate two feeders placed 5 feet apart might be best for the always-on-the-fly creatures who’s split tongues lick nectar from blooms or feeders at about 15 licks a second.
Like any project it takes time and planning, but birds will come. And with them promises of song, diversity of color and habit, a more diverse environment. After an hour in McIntosh’s landscape I saw red-winged blackbirds, golden finches, blue jays, robins, doves, cardinals, woodpeckers, yellow bellied sap suckers and juncos.
“I’ve sighted 121 different species here over the years, including songbirds and waterfowl,” McIntosh mentioned casually and says she even has a pair or two of orioles now. It’s a sight to behold.
