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Manage Your Backyard Bird Habitat to Attract Nesting Birds
© Rosemary Drisdelle
Apr 27, 2014
The right features can increase your chances of attracting nesting birds to your property and having wild birds nest and raise young in your backyard bird habitat.
For avid birders, there are probably few things more delightful than having birds nesting on the property. Installing nesting boxes for birds is popular and is often very successful; however, with the right backyard bird habitat you can create natural nesting sites for birds.
The species of birds that you attract to your backyard bird habitat depends on what bird species breed in your area and what kind of real estate you have to offer. You won’t attract Chimney Swifts, for instance, unless you have a natural or abandoned chimney four metres tall or taller. Similarly, Cliff Swallows won’t nest if there’s no cliff. Of course, if you’re lucky enough to have an unusual feature like a cliff, cave, or wetland on your property, you may be able to attract nesting birds that the rest of us just can’t.
Leave good nesting sites alone
The secret to good backyard bird habitat for nesting birds is often simple non-interference. Removing old dead trees, clearing brush, knocking down old cacti, draining wetlands, demolishing outbuildings, and removing old nests all destroy possible nesting sites. Leave the rotting stump if you can do so safely. Tidy up the outbuilding, make sure it’s not a safety risk and leave it for the birds. You may notice owls, swallows, robins, and various other birds moving in. Leave tall grasses, low bushes, badger holes, and last year’s nests alone. Old nests may be reoccupied by the same birds or by a different species. Or they may be taken apart for building materials.
Attract birds that nest high in trees
Many birds nest in evergreen or deciduous trees eight metres above the ground or more. Crows nest high in evergreens, building a new nest each time—their abandoned nests are sometimes taken over by hawks or even Great Horned Owls, especially in rural areas. Mourning Doves nest high in trees as well, in the crotch of a deciduous tree or in the Y of a branch. Steller’s Jays usually nest in evergreens, at least four meters off the ground, while Blue Jays nest as high or higher in evergreens or deciduous trees.
Attract cavity nesting birds
Cavity nesting birds are the species attracted by nesting boxes—boxes are important to some species that have lost many natural nesting sites due to habitat destruction. Old dead or dying trees are important natural nesting sites for these birds or, if you are in the US Southwest or Mexico, saguaro cacti. Common cavity nesting birds in North America include chickadees, woodpeckers, bluebirds, nuthatches, and tree swallows. Woodpeckers and flickers will excavate a large saguaro cactus, and Elf Owls are frequently a subsequent tenant.
Attract birds that nest near or on the ground
Low bushes, ferns and grasses, and fallen trees attract nesting birds. Song Sparrows and American Goldfinches nest fairly near the ground in bushes. (Dense bushes provide good protection from predators.) Juncos nest right on the ground, hiding their nests in tall grasses or upturned tree roots so don’t be too hasty with the weed trimmer and the shovel. And if you live in badger and prairie dog country in the Canadian prairies or the American Midwest, those empty animal burrows might just attract a Burrowing Owl—leave them if you can.
Entice birds to come and look:
Install a Birdbath to Entice Birds
Garden Birds and Transition Zones
Spring Gardening for Birders
Build a Dust Bath for Birds
Sources:
Canadian Wildlife Service and Canadian Wildlife Federation. “Hinterland Who’s Who.”
Perrins, Christopher ed. Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds. Buffalo: Firefly Books, 2003
Willison, Marjorie. The Complete Gardener’s Almanac. Halifax: Nimbus; 1993.
