Invite Wild Birds to Your Backyard

Image by Per Ola Wiberg ~ Powi via Flickr

     You can attract just about every song bird you want to see visiting your backyard by planting trees or shrubs they prefer. Below you’ll see a compilation of different plants, preceded by the name of the bird that likes them.
     BALTIMORE ORIOLE: apple, cherry, elderberry and different bushes.
     BLUEBIRD: dogwood, autumn olive, cherry, elderberry, holly, honeysuckle, mountain ash, poke berry, red cedar, sumac and a variety of berries.
     BLUEJAY: oak, cherry, elderberry, sunflower, wild plum, cultivated grains of all kind.
     CARDINAL: sunflower, autumn olive, cherry, corn, dogwood, elderberry, millet, poke berry, wheat and seeds of grasses, weeds and conifers.
     CATBIRD: cherry, oak, autumn olive, beauty berry, crab apple, dogwood, elderberry, fire thorn, hawthorn. holly, honeysuckle, plum, poke berry, sumac.
     CEDAR WAXWING: cherry, crab apple, hawthorn, autumn olive, dogwood, elderberry, fire thorn, holly, honeysuckle, poke berry.
     CHICKADEE: oak, sunflower, autumn olive, crab apple, elderberry, millet, sumac.
     MOURNING DOVE: holly, millet, pokeberry, sunflower.
     PURPLE FINCH: cherry, sunflower, autumn olive, crab apple, dogwood, fire thorn, honeysuckle, millet, sumac.
     GOLDFINCH: sunflower, honeysuckle, millet, mulberry, oak and seeds of garden flowers, weeds and conifers.
     EVENING GROSBEAK: cherry, dogwood, sunflower, crab apple, elderberry, honeysuckle, millet, oak and sumac.
     JUNCO: millet, sunflower, autumn olive, dogwood, elderberry, fire thorn, holly, honeysuckle, oak, poke berry, sumac.
     MOCKINGBIRD: poke berry, autumn olive, beauty berry, cherry, crab apple, dogwood, elderberry, fire thorn, hawthorn, high bush cranberry, holly, honeysuckle, oak, plum, sumac.
     NUTHATCH: oak, sunflower, autumn olive, crabapple, elderberry, millet, sumac.
     ORIOLE: apple, cherry, crab apple, dogwood, elderberry, mountain ash, plum, poke berry, sumac and a variety of berries.
     ROBIN: cherry, dogwood, holly, sumac, autumn olive, beauty berry, cotton easter, crab apple, elderberry, fire thorn, hawthorn, honeysuckle, plum, poke berry, Russian olive, sumac and different kinds of berries.
     SISKIN; sunflower, honeysuckle, millet, oak.
     SPARROW: millet, sunflower, autumn olive, dogwood, elderberry, fire thorn, holly, honeysuckle, oak, poke berry.
     TANAGER: cherry, crabapple, dogwood, elderberry, plum, pokeberry, sumac.
     BROWN THRASHER: cherry, oak, autumn olive, beauty berry, crab apple, dogwood, elderberry, fire thorn, hawthorn, holly, honeysuckle, plum, poke berry, sumac.
     THRUSH: dogwood, autumn olive, beauty berry, cherry, elderberry, fire thorn, holly, honeysuckle, poke berry, sumac.
     TITMOUSE: oak, sunflower, autumn olive, crabapple, millet, sumac.
     WOODPECKER: oak, cherry, crab apple, dogwood, elderberry, fire thorn, hawthorn, holly, honeysuckle, millet, plum, poke berry, sumac, sunflower.
     As you can see, if you do your planting right, you can enjoy a wide variety of birds with a few, select trees or shrubs. The interest in several of these plantings overlaps from bird to bird. An additional benefit you’ll derive from plants such as plum, crab apple and cherry trees as well as many berry varieties: you can harvest some of the fruit for yourself — if your feathered friends don’t beat you to them.