Your Yard as a Wild Bird Habitat

The four elements that attract birds are food, cover, water, and a place to rear their young. Your yard may already provide all of these elements through existing plantings and natural features. If it doesn’t, you can create areas on a patio, on a window ledge, or in your yard to attract birds.

Birds need a large amount of food relative to their size because they have a high metabolic rate. (Hummingbirds, for example, eat one-and-a-half to three times their weight each day.) Young birds must also eat constantly because they have a very short time in which to grow to maturity. A bird hatched in May must be ready to migrate by September.

Birds also replace their feathers annually, meaning they must grow a completely new set of feathers at least once a year. This process requires more energy than growing hair or fur does for mammals. Flight also demands a great deal of energy from a bird. Setting up and maintaining one or more feeders with high-quality food will attract a number of birds to your yard, because the feeders provide them with a much-needed energy source.

Birds survive by constantly scanning the skies and ground for danger. When attempting to attract birds to your backyard, keep in mind that birds are unlikely to consider even the most tempting food if it is 30 feet (9.1 m) or more from cover. The likelihood that a hawk could swoop in and pluck them from the feeder, or that a cat could jump up and grab them, makes birds hesitate.

When placing feeders, baths, and other items to attract birds to your yard, keep their need for cover in mind. A feeder located near brush piles or thickets of bushes makes that feeding station much safer for the birds because they can disappear into the brush and evade potential threats. Placing feeders high off the ground—about 5–10 feet (1.5–3 m) or more—also helps to deter ground predators such as house cats.

Birds require a great deal of water for feather care as well as to drink, and a birdbath in your yard will provide them with the water they need.

A birdbath doesn’t need to be fancy or elaborate. The most practical setup—a concrete bowl set on a pedestal—is both sturdy and long lasting, but a birdbath can be as simple as a shallow dish placed on a post or deck railing.

Birds use a variety of nesting materials. Some favor white feathers, such as the soft, downy feathers from chickens, ducks, or geese. Others may use pieces of string or yarn, small twigs, animal hair, dried moss, or countless other possible materials.

Place any nest materials you want to offer inside a basket hung in a place in your yard that birds regularly visit, such as a favorite feeder or a well-used bush or deck railing. If you decide to provide string or yarn, cut the pieces 6" (15 cm) long or less to keep them from wrapping around a bird’s legs or wings.