“First Protect The Other Creatures, Then Square Things With Mankind’s Nature.”

As nesting, food, grass-and wetlands goes, so goes the bird population. Paramount is careful conservation and restoration of the green spaces we have left. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Support conservation efforts and restoration of the green space we have left.

• You can help build private and public oases and flyways, instead of malls and highways.

• You can demand zoning and accountability and public transparency, just as your intelligent grandparents and great- grandparents did at the turn of the 20th Century land rush.

• You and your children and friends can help by gardening and landscaping for birds at home, at school, at corporate headquarters and campuses, golf courses, parks, churches, synagogues,mosques and other precious green places. It will improve property values, family values, esthetics, as well as the environment. Plant a tree or shrub, vines and flowers to provide nourishment and shelter.

• Formal or informal. Big or small. Fancy or simple. “Bird Gardening” means to Put Back into our properties the tree, shrubs, plants, flowers and vines that feed and shelter our birds and other living things naturally, and with beauty. It means give more than lip service to our roles as stewards for the next generations. It means value, beauty, nourishment and shelter for Us.

	"Insects! Fruit! Berries! Nectar!!!  Woods! Grass and Wetlands!!!  Food! Shelter! Water!!!”
Marsh Wren, Ole Westby (c)

Native Violet and Black Locust Tree by Arthur Singer       Crabapple Blueberry

GARDEN TODAY FOR WILD BIRDS -- PLANT TREES, SHRUBS, & WILDFLOWERS      FOR INSECTS, FRUIT, BERRIES, AND NECTAR BEST MENU & SHELTER FOR NORTH AMERICAN MIGRATORY BIRDS   Birds that travel South of our borders, in general are not seed eaters - one of the reasons why they must leave in the Winter and try to come back to us in the Spring. The following trees and shrubs can help them on their way here to nest and thrive, or bulk up in the Fall for the long flights to Latin America and the Caribbean. Remember, birds need water, too, shelter and a place to nest. (Check with your local garden club or bird group, botanical garden or nursery, farm extension or library to choose botanicals best suited to your area and your birds.) Alder shrub Apple Barberry (Japanese) shrub Bayberry (northern) shrub Beech Birches Blackberry Black Walnut Blueberries Cedar or Juniper (need male and female cedars to produce berries.) Cherry - Sour, Chokeberries, Fire or Pin Cherries, Wild Black Cherry Cholla and Prickly Pear Cacti Chuparosa shrub Citrus Coralberry shrub Cotoneasters (small leaves) Crabapple (fruiting) Currant Dogwoods Elderberry shrub Elms Eucalyptus Farkleberry, or High Bush Blueberry Gray Birch Hawthorn (Washington, India) Holly - Possomhaw, American Holly, Inkberry, Winterberry. (May need both male and female hollies to produce fruit for birds.) Honeysuckle (American Vine and Trumpet) Huckleberries Japanese Yew (berry producing) Maniznita Maples Mountain Ash Mulberries (May need male and female To produce fruit.) Oaks Ocotillo shrub Olives Pines Persimmon Prickly Pear Raspberries Red Buckeye Saguara Cacti Serviceberry Spicebush Sourgum or Black Tupelo Spruce Sumac shrubs Vibernum shrubs Virginia Creeper vine Wild Grapes and Figs Wild Rose Yellow-Trumpet bush Yucca Serviceberry

There are others, but these are proven winners and are beautiful landscaping elements.

***

FLOWERS & VINES FOR HUMMINGBIRDS &   BUTTERFLIES 

Purple Coneflower   Red Trumpet Vine     Canna

Agapanthus Aloe Bee balm Bird of Paradise Black-eyed Susan Buttercups Butterfly Bush Butterfly Weed Cardinal Flower Century Plant Columbines Coreopsis Cosmos Crimson Monkey Flower Daylilies Eaton's Firecracker Fairy Doctor Figwort Firepink Fireweed Foxglove Fuchsia Gilia Goldenrod Hibiscus Honeysuckle Indian Paintbrush Iris Impatiens Lantana Lily of the Nile Larkspir (Blue, and Scarlet) Lavender Horsemint Marigold Mints Milkweed Nicotiana Penstemons Petunia Phlox Purple Coneflower Red Hot Poker Sage (Hummingbird, Lemmon's, Pineapple) Salvia Trumpet Vine Yarrow Zinnia

Yellow Trumpet Vine Butterfly Weed   Foxglove

PLANT NOW -- MAKE EXTINCTION THE EXCEPTION.

***

EXCELLENT AND NOT TOO EXPENSIVE BOOKS
TO
HELP YOU START GARDENING FOR BIRDS

American Wildlife & Plants - A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits, Martin; Zim; Nelson, Dover Publications, 1951; 1961, ISBN 0-486- 20793-5 (pkb)($9.95).
How to Attract Birds, Ortho Books, ISBN 0-89721-011-5(pkb.)( $9.95).
Bird Gardening Book - The Complete Guide to Creating A Bird-friendly Habitat in Your Backyard, Donald and Lillian Stokes; Little, Brown and Company, 1998, ISBN 0-316-81836-4 (pkb)($11.05).
Songbirds In Your Garden, John K. Terres; foreword by Roger Tory Peterson, Algonquin Books, 1994, ISBN 1-56512-044-2 (pkb.)($14.95).
Birdscaping Your Garden - A Practical Guide to Backyards and the Plants That Attract Them, George Adams, Rodale Press, 1998, ISBN 0-87596-956-9 (pkb.)($18.95). *
The Bird Lover's Garden by Margaret MacAvoy and Pat Kite, Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, 2000, ISBN 1-56799-727-9, 128 pages, hardcover ($25.00).
The Encyclopedia of North American Trees by Sam Benvie, Firefly, 2000, ISBN 1-55209-408-1, 304 pages, color photos / illus., hardcover ($35.00).

See also Good Reading list on the Menu (To the left).

WHY BIRDS? -- CAN'T WE KEEP THEM IN A CAGE OR ZOO??

The answer is no, not without
harming ourselves.

What do wild birds do for human beings?

They are living, breathing symbols of liberty and beauty, grace, precision, excellence -- frequently so exquisite as to be dumbfounding;  frequently and, reassuringly, very plain. Historically symbols of sky and freedom for earthbound animals, who must still envy and study their easy, aerial acrobatics. 

Origins of song, poetry and myth. Descendants of the dinosaurs. Most efficient insectivores in the world yet harmless to us and the earth. Major pollinators, essential predators and scavengers. "Our" wild birds are a major link in the food chain that sustains us all as fellow creatures. Symbiotic protectors of trees. A living early warning system to humans of the health of our environment; additions to property values as well as family values. A multi-billion dollar industry, worldwide, for tourism and gardeners.

More?

Our fellow creatures known as "wild birds" are a gift of God and Nature; crucial to the web of life that supports our own. They are happy harbingers of Spring and the seasons; an endless pleasure to the observing eye, ear and intellect. Unexpectedly -- to some -- they are proving to be intelligent and sentient beings, worthy of respect and protection as valuable members of our extended family. Will human population expansion, unguarded markets and technology, be allowed to destroy them in the coming years?

Will you help make your garden an oasis for wild birds?? Plant trees, shrubs, vines, and flowers for fruit, berries, nectar, and insects. We welcome your tax-deductible* support: Wild Birds for the 21st Century, Inc.* 7376 Pershing Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63130  Email us at director@wildbirds.org We thank you for your help.

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