Ways to Help
Making Your Yard Safe for Birds
There are many simple things individuals can do to help birds. The actions below improve habitat, reduce common dangers, and make yards and neighborhoods safer places for birds.
Learn About Native Plants
The most important thing you can do to help your feathered visitors is to incorporate as many native plantings in your yard as possible. Only native plants host the insect abundance required by our migrating and nesting birds, with many birds surviving either largely or exclusively on insects. Virtually all nesting birds need insects to feed their young, as insects provide the protein required for nestling development. Non-native plants host only a fraction of the insects that are supported by native plants.
Note: Use only plants native to your region. For more information about the relationship between native plants, insects, and birds, see our Native Plant Guides
Stop Window Crashes
According to expert Dr. Daniel Klem, up to a billion birds are killed in window crashes annually in North America. Read article by Dr. Klem here.
For more information on ways to solve this issue, check out ABC’s guidance here: Preventing Bird–Window Collisions (American Bird Conservancy)
Keep Cats Indoors
Domestic and feral cats kill well over one billion birds annually. The level of predation is unsustainable for many already-declining birds like the Least Tern and the Wood Thrush. The American Bird Conservancy, National Audubon, and Saving Birds Thru Habitat are just a few of the groups calling for keeping cats indoors. This practice not only saves birds but is healthier for your pets.
For more information, see our article Why TNR Harms Birds, Cats, and Wildlife.
Purchase Bird-friendly Coffee
For about two hundred years, coffee was harvested from under-story plants growing along mountainside rainforests in the tropics. Because the plants were shaded, products produced from these farms were referred to as “shade coffee.” A number of North American migratory songbirds depended on these farms in the winter because of the abundance of food due to the plant diversity in the region.
In the 1970s, coffee farming largely changed to mono-cultural "sun plantations" or coffee-only fields at lower elevations. These new farms began to plant non-native eucalyptus trees in order to meet demand, relied heavily on chemicals like insecticides, and no longer provided the plant diversity birds needed for food. Without plant diversity, birds lose a key source of winter habitat, and consumers were encouraged to seek out shade-grown coffee instead.
If you want coffee growers to help support wintering warblers and other birds, seek out coffee from the original mountainside farms. Look for rainforest-friendly or shade-grown coffee, or check out the Cooperative Coffees website.
Create a Thicket
Dense plantings of cedar trees, serviceberry, dogwood and viburnum shrubs or trees , and other shrubs and brambles native to your area will provide cover, food, and nesting sites for a wide variety of birds like buntings, some sparrows, and various warblers.
Create a Hummingbird Garden
Figwort, Spotted jewelweed, Columbine, Cardinal flower, Blazing star, New England aster, and other native flowers will attract and feed not only hummingbirds but also butterflies, moths, bees, and other insects.
Supply Clean Water
Birds need water. If you do not live near clean water, you can help meet that need with something as simple as a shallow bird bath made using a planter saucer, regularly cleaned and supplied with fresh water. Or you could pursue something more elaborate, such as a waterfall/stream and pond setup.
The essential element for any water feature, however simple or elaborate, is to keep the water clean for your feathered visitors. Birds, like humans, pass diseases through unclean feeding and watering places. It is important to frequently refresh or replace water or oxygenate it, using methods to keep it bubbling or moving. This supports aerobic bacteria that will break down waste products and prevent the water from becoming foul.
Save Dead Trees
Many bird species depend on cavities in dead and dying trees for natural nesting sites, especially woodpeckers, owls, chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, tree swallows, and bluebirds—but also some wrens, ducks, and warblers. Also, some wrens, ducks, and warblers will use natural cavities. While some bird species accept artificial nesting boxes, many will not.
Leaving standing dead timber (as long as it does not threaten life, limb, or personal property) is something you can do to help those birds that require natural nesting sites.
Please Do Not Use Pesticides
Insects, including spiders, are a critical food source for birds. Poisoned food is not good for birds to eat. Interestingly, spiders, their eggs, and even their webs are a beneficial source of protein. Yes, spider webs are made of protein.
About feeding birds
If you choose to feed birds, try to make sure that you are not luring them into a place that is not safe, where they are more likely to collide into windows, be preyed upon by predator birds or cats, or encounter disease because of unclean conditions at a watering hole or feeders.
Hummingbirds
You can make hummingbird nectar by using 1 part sugar to 4 parts water. Dissolve sugar thoroughly by first bringing water to a boil or by starting with hot water. Keep unused portions of nectar in the fridge. Offer small amounts, unless your feeders become busy, as nectar ferments quickly, especially in hot weather. You might want to hang feeders where they will be shaded from the sun and where hummingbirds can find natural places to perch and shelter -- and maybe even take turns ;-). Since hummingbirds are very territorial, it is helpful to hang more than one feeder, a ways apart from one another, to reduce feeder wars. Typically, the better hummingbird feeders come with ant traps (where you can simply add water) to prevent ants from invading from above. Hanging feeders where ants cannot climb up to them easily should keep them from invading from below. Do not offer commercial hummingbird foods that often contain chemical preservatives and/or food coloring. Do not add anything to the nectar, including food coloring. Never use artificial sweeteners, honey, or raw sugar.
Orioles
Orioles will also drink the same nectar you make for hummingbirds but they require feeders that have larger holes for their beaks. Do not offer Orioles commercial food made for them as, again, such foods are likely to contain chemical preservatives and/or food coloring. Also, please do not offer them or jam or jelly that is made for people. Yes, the birds love it (as do most kids), but it is unhealthy for them. The sticky jam or jelly can also can get in their feathers, which can interfere with or prevent them from flying. Instead, offer Orioles natural fruit, like slices of orange, impaled on the trunk of a tree or positioned elsewhere. You might find feeders made specifically to offer fruit to Orioles. Note that you might want to take fruit down at the end of the day because other wildlife, like raccoons and opossums who come out in the evening and night, may be attracted to the fruit that you put out to attract the day-feeding Orioles. Also, unless you live near a stream, river, lake, pond where Orioles commonly nest where habitat provides them with preferred nesting material (like cottonwood seed clusters or catkins from willow trees), you may be disappointed by the short time you will see migrating Orioles feeding on your offerings.
Seed Eaters
If you choose to offer other bird food, please keep feeders clean and food fresh. Storing bird food, such as millet, black-oil sunflower, safflower, suet, and split peanuts in metal cans will help to keep food fresh. This will also help prevent wildlife you do not intend on feeding from being attracted. Do not buy bags of seed if you see signs of mold or mildew. If mold or mildew develop after you have purchased seeds, suet, or other bird food, throw it out as it is not safe for birds to eat. It is also a good idea to try to keep the ground under feeders clean too if bird droppings and excess food falling from the feeders start to pile up, creating an unhealthy situation.
Avian Predators
Accipiters are an increasing problem at bird feeders, including during the winter months, as they have learned that they do not need to follow birds that tend to go south because bird feeders are increasingly providing them with a reliable source of food. They will set up residence at your feeders and take virtually every feeder visitor if it is easy to do so. Place feeders near trees and shrubs and to provide birds shelter from avian predators. If you notice that an accipiter, like a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's hawk, take your feeders down for awhile and monitor. If food supply does not show up at feeders, the predator is likely to move in several days In a world with declining birds, this is an important issue to consider when feeding birds.
Each of these actions may seem small on its own, but together they help restore the habitat birds need to survive and raise their young. Native plants support insects, insects support birds, and birds in turn help sustain balanced ecosystems. By making thoughtful choices in our yards and neighborhoods, we can begin rebuilding these relationships one small step at a time. The birds and we thank you.