The sound of birds chirping in your garden is priceless.
Having birds visit your garden really can add to the elegance, charm, and allure of your outside garden space.
Have you ever wanted to have birds outside, but they never seem to be attracted to your garden?
Are you hoping to create a space that could be a small habitat for birds in your community?
It sounds like you’re ready for making your garden accessible to birds!
With some simple steps, we will explain to you how you can go about making your garden a welcoming environment that birds feel drawn to.
Follow these tips and you will create a symbiotic relationship between yourself and these beautiful creatures.
They will benefit from your habitat, food, and protection and you will benefit from their song.
Things Need to know before attracting birds to your garden
There are many birds that you may find in your garden, but the most common bird that may pay a visit is the songbird.
You will be able to notice what birds are in your garden by the shape of their bills.
Birds that have more pointed beaks will eat invertebrates such as worms or insects. An example of this type of bird is a Robin.
On the other hand, birds such as the House Sparrow have a more triangular beak shape that they use to crack open seed husks.
Deciding to attract birds to your yard may mean that you have to put more time into bird-friendly landscaping and that you may invest time and effort into this endeavour.
Before you decide against it, there is a great benefit to attracting these animals to your space.
Many birds eat insects such as aphids and mosquitoes, and they could serve as a natural pest control.
As they explain in The Spruce, bigger birds such as owls and hawks will provide helpful rodent control.
What’s more, is that finches and sparrows consume weed seeds and can help control unwanted plants.
how to attract birds to your garden
1. Birdseed and Feeders
One of the fail-proof ways of attracting birds to your garden is having a birdfeeder readily accessible with birdseed.
As Discover Wildlife argue, it is also important to ensure that your bird food comes from reputable sources.
The importance of making sure you know where your birdseed is coming from ensures that you will be giving the birds the energy and nutrition they require.
You can also experiment with the type of feeders and seed mixes you choose from.
Some common types of straight food are wheat, niger seeds, sunflower hearts, or peanuts.
As they explain in their video in TA Outdoors, one fail-proof seed is the sunflower seed, which a lot of species of birds enjoy.
Try to avoid putting out human food.
If you have no other option than to use food, you could place out soaked breadcrumbs for birds to feed on.
Detailed in the tutorial video of Vine House Farm, you may want to have feeders that both hang and others that are placed on the ground.
Birds that have more pointed beaks and usually eat invertebrates are more likely to eat off the ground.
2. Birdbaths
If you feel really drawn to not only having birds in your garden but also being able to admire the birds for an extended time, a birdbath may be the investment for you.
Birds will begin to see your garden as a part of their daily routine.
Water is extremely important for seed-eating birds that have dry meals.
The birdbath can serve as a resource for these birds and will help them water down their food.
There are a few precautions you should take when installing your birdbath, however.
Make sure if you live somewhere that experiences cold seasons, that your birdbath doesn’t freeze over in the winter months.
If you decide to defrost your birdbath, furthermore, make sure to not use salt, as this can be fatal for birds.
3. Nest boxes
Another approach to making your garden a place that birds want to be would be to create a nest box.
A nest box is a man-made enclosure for birds to nest in. Another word for them is birdhouse or bird box.
RSPB, an organization focused on giving animals homes, details where the best places is for your nest box.
They write that boxes for sparrows, starlings, or tits should be two to four meters up a tree or wall.
Unless your nest box is facing a place where it will receive shade, make sure to face the box between North and East to avoid strong sunlight.
It is best to put your box up during fall, as birds are looking for a place to keep warm and feed.
Do not forget to clean your box during spring and summer in preparation for future bird arrivals!
Another key feature of an effective nest box is that the birds have a clear flight path to their nest.
Make sure to remove any clutter in front of the entrance to the box.
In addition, make sure that the box is positioned so it won’t fill up with rainwater during wet seasons.
One way to ensure that this does not happen is constructing your own roof for the box, and hammering it at a slant so that rainwater slides off.
If you decide to make your own nest box, consider the tutorial from FinnCrafted, who give pointers for construction.
4. Bushes and Trees
When making the decision of the type of bushes to plant to attract birds, you need to consider what time of year you are gardening.
You may consider planting shrubs such as pyracantha, berberis, and cotoneaster.
Another opportunity to attract birds to your garden is through planting fruit or berry-bearing trees.
Birds will not only visit your garden for shelter but can also use your garden as a place to feed.
They are likely to be attracted to trees such as holly, hawthorn, rowan, and honeysuckle trees.
One plant that would also definitely attract birds is the sunflower, which would release sunflower seeds, which many birds feast upon.
5. Predators
One key factor that you must consider when deciding to attract birds to your garden is whether or not your space is safe for birds.
If there are a lot of predators in your area, like cats or sparrow hawks, it may be dangerous to set up opportunities for birds to be attracted to your garden.
If you are able to, you may purchase an electronic deterrent that would repel cats.
When these electronic cat repellent systems detect motion, they release a high-pitched electronic sound that is inaudible to humans and dogs.
This sound will frighten cats away and is completely safe for humans and other domestic animals!
If you are unable to control this risk factor, you can decide to place your birdfeeders in a place protected from a cat’s reach.
Other Factors to Consider
When creating your garden, avoid using garden netting that could trap birds.
Another harmful risk to birds is placing bird feeders close to windows, as birds may collide with windows, which could be fatal.
Other factors that could influence what birds show up could be the time of year and if the cold weather negatively impacts bird numbers and species of birds attracted to your garden.
Wait and Watch!
Now is your time to decide whether or not all of the strategies you’ve put into place have worked!
In order to determine whether your work has been successful, you can keep a gardening journal.
You can track the number of birds visiting your garden at the beginning of your experiment and how these numbers changed based on different factors.
If you wanted to make it a true experiment, you could change one variable at a time.
Consider only changing one of these factors; type of bushes or trees in your garden, whether you have birdseed, birdbath, or if you’ve reduced the number of predators.
You can try adding any one of these factors and record the number of birds in your garden.
Alternatively, you can control two or more factors and see what the correlation is between what you alter and how many birds come to your garden.
When recording the number of birds in your garden, make sure to not startle them and keep a safe distance.
One way to mitigate this challenge could be using binoculars to track your bird activity.
Make sure you have your binoculars in an easily accessible area near your gardening journal so that you are able to collect your data.
Enjoying Your Garden
There are many benefits to having birds in your garden.
Not only will you be awakened by their beautiful music, but you will also have bug control and help with your garden weeds!
After you began noticing birds in your garden, what factor did you feel was most impactful to the number of birds you noticed?
Let us know what was the most influential contributor to attracting birds to your garden in a comment.
Kick up your feet and enjoy the garden you’ve worked to cultivate as a beautiful escape and haven for humans and birds alike!
