Growing Concerns: Plants help birds weather winter

Article Sidebar

Article content

Like many gardeners, I’ve been busy doing my fall cleanup and getting things prepared for the snow. As we enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner last weekend, the topic of birds came up. We discussed what we can leave in our garden as food for birds, both now as many migrate south and for those that spend the winter with us.

Gardeners work hard to attract birds and other wildlife during the summer months. There are several plants we can add to help birds through the winter.

American cranberry viburnum (Viburnum trilobum): Brown thrashers, cedar waxwings and other birds feast on the long-lasting fruits that serve birds well in tough winters.

Arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum): Hardy and adaptable, arrowhead viburnum is a particularly good shelter plant for birds and features pretty creamy white flower clusters in early summer. In late summer and autumn, bunches of blue-black berries appear.

Pagoda dogwood:Downy woodpeckers, brown thrashers, Eastern bluebirds and many other backyard birds are attracted to the dark fruits of North American native pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia),

Red-Twig dogwood (Cornus stolonifera):also features clusters of small white flowers in spring, white fruits in summer and fall, and bold red-orange autumn colour.

Chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia): Brown thrashers are fond of chokeberries and so are cedar waxwings and other songbirds.

Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana):This evergreen provides birds with a great source of shelter, and female plants offer blue berrylike cones eaten by many birds.

Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina): offers ferny leaves that turn bold red in fall. It also features clusters of furry dark red fruit that hold on through the winter, supplying a variety of birds including robins and vireos.

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata):Often goes unnoticed, but they stop traffic when the leaves drop in autumn and the berries ripen. Branches laden with bright red fruit attract robins and other birds.

Crabapple (Malus selections): Often grown for the ornamental value of their prodigious spring blooms. The fruits, however, are the apples of birds’ eyes. To attract the greatest variety of songbirds, select cultivars with small fruits that hang on through the winter. Zones 4-8

Serviceberry:Robins, thrushes, and other birds are quick to eat the fruits of serviceberry (amelanchier selections), a small tree or large shrub, depending on the variety.

Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis):A pretty little groundcover native to areas of North America with leaves, flowers, and berries that look remarkably like those of its cousin, flowering dogwood. It thrives in moist, shady spots and grows 10-15 centimetres tall.

Some other plants birds enjoy include aster (asters): Deschampsia (tufted hair grass); Dicentra spectabilis (bleeding heart); Echinacea (coneflower); Fragaria (strawberry); Liatris (gay feather); Lobelia cardinalis (cardinal flower); Miscanthus sinensus (maiden grass); Monarda (bee balm); Rudbeckia (black-eyed susan); Sedum spectabile (showy stonecrop); Solidaygo (goldenrod); and Valeriana (valerian).

As you clean up the garden, don’t be afraid to leave some perennials standing because it could mean the difference between a good winter and a hard winter for the birds.

Don’t know what to buy a gardener? We always love a new bird feeder and some seed so we too can enjoy the activity going on in the garden from our windows.


