Bird Friendly Shrubs
Cultivating bird friendly shrubs for your backyard requires determining what shrubs will thrive in your local environment, and that will also provide a good home, or food source for birds. Bird friendly plants come in many different varieties, from trees, to shrubs and flowers – each offers it’s own blend of beneficial elements that appeal to birds. Shrubs are ideal due to their fast grow speed, low ground cover, and low maintenance requirements.
Shrubs can offer not only food, but also shelter and nesting locations for local birds. Often times, a well placed shrub next to a feeder will encourage more bird activity due to the safety provided by the shrub. Be careful when maintaining, or trimming your shrubs, as you can disrupt a nesting family – we learned this first hand when doing our landscaping this spring! A good sign of a nesting bird is to watch the mother and/or father coming and going from the shrub throughout the day.
Depending on your longitude and latitude, the recommendations for shrubs vary. No matter your region, you’ll also want to avoid invasive species that will take over, or threaten your local ecosystem.
List of Bird Friendly Shrubs
This list covers some of the most common shrubs in Northern Hemisphere regions. Read more about each shrub, to determine if it will work in your backyard. Consult with local botanist or landscaper for expert advice and assistance with purchase, proper transport and planting procedures.
- Arborvitae
- Bayberry
- Blueberries
- Buttonbush
- Cotoneaster
- Dogwood
- Elderberry
- Grapes
- Highbush cranberry
- Holly
- Juniper
- Lilac
- Mugo
- Nannyberry
- Ribes
- Sage
- Evergreen Sumac
- Wax myrtle
- Willow
- Winterberry
The last bit of advice, is to vary the types of shrubs, and plantings to give your local birds, insect and critters a rich offering of food, shelter and natural habitat. Shrubs, along with small plants, flowers and trees will not only attracts birds to your backyard, they will increase your well-being!
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