thisplace.com.au - Attracting Birds to Your Garden

Quick Reference

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Shelter or Refuge

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Nesting

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Plants for Food

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Plants for Nectar

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Plants for Seed

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Plants for Soft Fruits

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For Insect Eating Birds

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Smart Tips

Introduction

Birds have three main requirements from the environment:- shelter or roosting, nesting sites, and food. Some trees and shrubs provide all three of these needs, while others are specialist providers of different parts of the habitat.

This page suggests a few interesting plants to attract birds to the suburban garden. As growing conditions such as climate and soil types are so variable you need to choose species suitable for your area.

It is usually impractical to grow tall trees, such as many eucalypts, in urban blocks, so it is wise to plant shrubs, groundcover and other small plants. The mallee eucalypts are very attractive and suitable.

Banksias flower in late summer to autumn when little else is flowering and guarantee a large number and variety of bird visitors such as red wattlebird, rainbow lorikeet and eastern spinebill.

At any time in the year there is an Acacia (wattle) species flowering. They produce copious amounts of seed. The prickly forms also provide shelter. Treecreepers climb up the trunk, usually of rough-barked trees especially eucalypts.

Shelter or Refuge

Birds often flee from raptors ( or ground dwelling predators into low spiky shrubs. The hakeas provide shelter for wrens and finches. Hakea sericea, needlebush, may grow l-4m,spiky foliage and white to pink flowers. Grevillea rosmarinifolia, G.juniperina and other low grevilleas have short spiny foliage and red flowers.

Callistemon citrinus, lemon-scented bottlebrush, may grow 1-5m, with sharply-pointed leaves and red flowers in spring. Epacris longifolia flowers in winter with vivid red/white bells and prickly leaves.

Other birds require tall shelter which itself needs more space. Angophora costata, smooth-barked applegum, has a spreading crown, growing to 20m, with white flowers in summer. Syncarpia glomulifera, turpentine, grows to 20m in gullies and side slopes with a crown that casts a deep shade. Masses of white flowers about September. Birds such as owls often use this tree as a daytime roost.

All birds require a roost to spend the night or day. They also require a perch from which to snatch a passing insect (flycatchers) or pounce onto the ground for prey (yellow robins).

Nesting

If one has a quiet, secluded garden comparatively free from interference and domestic pets, then birds may be attracted to nest in suburban gardens. It is important to have food plants and those which attract insects near the site as small birds must conserve energy while nesting.

finches may nest in Hakea bushes
buff-rumped thornbills may nest close to the ground amongst clumps of grass
gray strike-thrush prefers nesting on lower trunks of trees or on a stump.
Red wattlebirds choose Callitiris
many honeyeaters prefer to nest in pendulous foliage of eucalypts
wrens, robins and brown thornbills may nest in low shrubs
Magpies construct a nest in the fork of tall trees.
Parrots, lorikeets and kookaburras nest in hollows and you can provide these in gardens with a hollow log or nest-box. These can also be made decorative features.
Native climbers such as Kennedya, Clematis and Sollya are also valuable nesting sites for small birds while providing a contrasting shape and form.

Plants for Food

Birds depend on trees and shrubs for food in a variety of ways. They may feed on nectar in flowers, or eat seeds and soft fruits. Many birds are insectivorous, seeking insects in flowers, branches and leaves, and in the airspace between plants.

Plants for Nectar

For Nectar in flowers:-Melaleuca hypericifolia- light red brushes, weeping foliage. Calothamnus quadrifidus, -one sided bottlebrush. Eucalyptus leucoxylon, attractive bark, foliage white, pink or red flowers autumn, winter or spring. Eucalyptus eximia, yellow bloodwood, to 20m with gray-green foliage and masses of white flowers usually in October. Grevillea 'Robyn Gordon' or any suitable hybrid growing to a few meters with red flowers.

Your local nursery will have access to a large range of bird attracting grevilleas. Leptospermum petersonii, lemon-scented tea-tree, may grow to 7m with cream flowers in spring. This may require pruning.

Smaller tea-tree species may be grown with good results. Banksia ericifolia with dark green foliage to 5m with orange flowers. Correa reflexa is a smaller plant, usually less than 2m and pendulous, bell-shaped red and green flowers most of the year. Anigozanthus species, kangaroo paws, are excellent. A. flavidus is taller, with yellow or green flowers, but many hybrid forms usually grow less than 1 m and have interesting flower shapes and colour.

Plants for Seed

Acacia elata, cedar wattle, taller, longer living than many wattles, attractive foliage and cream summer flowers. Acacia suaveolens, sweet-scented wattle, only 1-2m, with gray- green foliage.
Autumn - Cassia artemisioides, silver cassia, low shrub to 1 m, silver foliage, bright yellow flowers in spring.
Callitris rhomboidea - native cypress conifer.
Eucalyptus sideroxylon, mugga ironbark, may grow to 20m. attractive gray/glaucous foliage, with white to pink flowers.
Allocasuarina torulosa, forest she-oak, may grow 15-20 Meters, has attractive needle-like foliage, furrowed bark and hard fruits suitable for Glossy Black Cockatoos.
Pultenea and other pea flowers produce edible seeds which attract rosellas.

For Insect Eating Birds

Austromyrtus tenuifolia, A. dulcis are ideal small shrubs with fleshy berries.
Acmena smithii, lilli pilli, adaptable rninforest plant with glossy green foliage, pink new foliage white flowers in summer, fruit during winter.
Elaeocarpus reticulatus, blueberry ash, rainforest tree often a shrub in sandstone soils, attractive white to pink flowers in October-November, blue fruits in autumn..
For Insect eating birds, as well as most Acacia species, try the many Baeckeas, the Pimeleas, the Pulteneas and the Kunzeas. If you want to attract night birds such as owls and frogmouths, plant white or lemon flowered shrubs to attract night-flying insects such as moths. Callistemon pallidus is good for this.

Smart tips

A water bath is another useful addition to the garden to attract birds. It must be protected from cats and dogs. To encourage birds to your garden do not use non-organic chemicals which destroy their food sources. If you design your garden with suitable plants you will not need to use other foods such as honey or sugar and water, which lack nutrients and can be harmful to birds.