Nothing adds more pleasure to your garden than the birds that visit and live in it. They bring visual delight, music, color and joy, not to mention insect control. Living so close to the Point Reyes National Seashore assures us of many species, as the seashore has the largest avian diversity of any national park unit in the United States. You can create your own bird-friendly sanctuary by providing their basic needs of shelter, food and water.
Shelter
Birds need plants of various heights for places to hide, rest and protect themselves from enemies. Trees, dense shrubs and hedges, brambles and vines give them a place out of the rain, wind and cold. Evergreens at the edge of your garden, such as Bishop pines, redwoods or cedars, will provide essential shelter and attract owls, hawks and woodpeckers.
Most importantly, birds need shelter for nesting, and they choose their site carefully: a defensible space with protective cover like dense foliage, near food and water sources. Some garden birds, such as the pygmy nuthatch and Western bluebird, choose tree hollows or holes in dead limbs to build their nests. If that’s not your idea of a garden feature, consider setting out a nest box, which is easy to build or buy. We placed one on a six-foot fence post, and every year we watch the violet-green swallows chase out the bluebirds and take over the box as their own.
Food
Natural food sources are best. A garden with a wide variety of regional native plants attracts a larger variety of birds than a bird feeder filled with store-bought seed might attract. A diversity of plants will draw more insects, and thus more birds.
Let the grass form seed heads as bird food. Grow fruits and berries, and flowers that produce nectar, to appeal to a variety of birds. Hanging hummingbird feeders filled with sugar-water are commonly seen in gardens, but hummingbirds are sure to love your garden if it contains plants with tubular flowers like Penstemon and Salvia. They are also attracted to red and purple, such as in the Penstemon variety Scarlet Bugler. Salvias are nectar-rich, with Salvia spathacea commonly referred to as Hummingbird Sage.
Symphoricarpos albus, the common snowberry, carries its round white fruits into the winter to delight many birds. Ribes sanguineum, the red flowering currant, is a favorite of the Western bluebird and sparrows for its pulpy purple fruit.
Leave that wild patch of blackberries on the back fence, or cultivate some elderberries. Over 150 species of birds favor these fruits.
Water
Birds need fresh, clean water for drinking and bathing throughout the year, and the simplest way to provide it is with a birdbath. The preferred kind for variously sized birds is a wide, shallow bowl sloping from one inch at the edge to three inches deep in the middle, mounted on a pedestal about three feet high. Stone is ideal, as a roughened bottom gives the birds a firm grip. Keep it unfrozen in the winter months and place it near some shrubbery to allow birds to escape into the foliage for safety.
We have a special pond made of a deep bowl with a sculpted marble birdbath in the center, fed by an arched copper pipe like a faucet that recirculates the water. Hummingbirds love to fly through the falling water to get a quick shower. They will do the same thing when you are watering by hand with a spray hose.
Providing these simple bird necessities will make your garden a natural avian habitat, so keep your binoculars handy to enjoy their welcome presence.
Alice Eckart lives in Point Reyes Station. She is a 25-year member of the Inverness Garden Club and a Marin Master
Gardener. This column is sponsored by the Inverness Garden Club.