Draw in Birdies..

Draw in the birdies to your property. Bird will not only bring in beauty and life to your gardens, but they will also eat a LOT of pests. The above plant is called Crocosmia, Lucifer. It is a magnet for hummingbirds. Once you have one, just dig around it in the spring and move out some of the baby bulbs and you'll have lots. I have these all over the property now. They also come in yellow, orange and mixed colors, but the red ones are the hummingbird favorites.

We lost a lot of trees several years ago to the Emerald Ash Borers, so one of the bird species that I have been drawing in since then is the woodpecker family. They eat tree borers. I put out food in the winter for the birds and make sure I supply lots of food for the woodpecker family, like suet cakes. Here are a few photos of my friendly neighborhood woodpeckers.
 This one is a pileated woodpecker, and yes she is huge. We have had these around here for years, but I am beginning to see them every day this winter. I do leave a lot of standing dead wood for them in the woods for habitat, and I put out suet cakes and nuts and seeds and dried fruit for the bird all year around. Woodpeckers are likely to do damage to trees only if there aren't a lot of deadwood trees around for them to find food in and make their nests in. The picture below is the same woodpecker later on a suet cake.

 

The photos above also show a red belly woodpecker, funny name for a bird with a red head, but that is what he is called. They are absolutely beautiful birds and we have them here all winter long, probably in the summer also but they have lots of natural food in the summer so they aren't as likely to be seen at the feeders. We also have other kinds of woodpeckers here like Downeys and Hairies..We have yellow belly sapsuckers here too, and they are more likely the ones that are going to damage buildings and trees. 

We have hundred of other birds that come here year around as well. We provide shrubs and vines that bear berries for just the birds in the summer, and some keep their berries on the branches well into the winter. I also put out bird houses for shelter for the birds and perches. If you place perches in areas where you have insect problems, they are likely to eat the insects, also you can draw birds into an insect infestation area by adding a bird feeder right over that area in your garden, to get the birds to drop down onto the ground below the feeder and find the buggies that are bugging you.

If you do bring birds into your garden, give them a chance. Please do not spray insect killers on the plants, give the birds a chance to kill and eat the insects, or the beneficial insects (but that is another post).

Always make sure that you have some wilder areas and lots of cover for the birds, remember also that they love vines and evergreens when it comes to cover. Also ground cover plants are really loved not only by birds but by other beneficials like newts, spiders, frogs, etc.