Native plants for birds
Native plants feed birds in ways a feeder cannot: oaks, cherries, willows and birches carry the caterpillars most songbirds raise their young on, berry shrubs such as serviceberry, dogwood and holly feed them into winter, and coneflowers, sunflowers and asters leave seed heads for finches. Aim for about 70 percent natives, and check what grows where you live in Audubon’s native plants database.
Why native plants
Most songbirds, seed eaters included, feed their young on insects, caterpillars above all, and native plants carry far more of them. In a 2009 study by Doug Tallamy’s team, yards in southeastern Pennsylvania planted mostly with natives held four times as many caterpillars as yards of non-native plants; in a 2017 study, Carolina chickadees raised more young in yards that were mostly native. Cornell Lab’s native plant specialist puts the mark at about 70 percent natives to see most of the benefit, so a yard does not need to start over.
Native plants also feed birds directly, with buds, fruit and seed, and give them cover and places to nest. MassWildlife now asks residents to plant natives and put out water in place of seed feeders.
What to plant, by what it gives
Caterpillars: native oaks, cherries, willows and birches host the most caterpillar species, Cornell notes, which makes a single oak worth more to nesting birds than a flower bed.
Fruit: serviceberry and dogwood ripen in summer and fall; American holly, juniper and winterberry hold their fruit into winter, when robins, bluebirds and waxwings live on it.
Seed: purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, common sunflower, asters and goldenrod. Leave the seed heads standing through winter for goldfinches and sparrows.
Nectar: coral honeysuckle in the East, wild bergamot (bee balm) across much of the country and California fuchsia in the West bring hummingbirds. Plant the native coral honeysuckle, not the invasive Japanese honeysuckle.
Cover: dense shrubs near the feeders give birds somewhere to dart into, and native grasses such as switchgrass and little bluestem give ground-nesting sparrows cover.
Region by region
Cornell Lab’s starting points, from its native plant primer for North America:
Northeast and the Great Lakes: oaks, cherries, willows and birches for caterpillars; swamp milkweed, whose insects feed birds in spring and whose fluff lines goldfinch nests; New England aster.
Southeast: highbush blueberry and American holly for catbirds and towhees, coral honeysuckle for ruby-throated hummingbirds, black-eyed Susan and purple coneflower.
South-central: northern spicebush and flowering dogwood, whose red fruits blue jays and tanagers seek out in fall.
Midwest and Great Plains: switchgrass and little bluestem for ground-nesting birds, common sunflower and gray goldenrod.
Northwest: Saskatoon serviceberry and red-twig dogwood for robins and western tanagers, California fuchsia and wild bergamot for hummingbirds.
Southwest: blanket flower and California fuchsia for Anna’s and rufous hummingbirds, and hardy fruiting shrubs such as common juniper and desert holly.
What is native differs by county, so check the list for your ZIP code in Audubon’s native plants database before you buy.
Getting started
A first season does not need a plan for the whole yard.
- Look up your USDA hardiness zone, and note which spots are sunny, shady, wet or dry.
- Decide what you most want to feed: a berry shrub near the feeders gives cover and fruit, a native tree gives caterpillars for decades.
- Plant in fall where you can: the soil is still warm and rain helps roots settle before spring, Cornell’s Bird Academy notes.
- Turn a patch of lawn over each year rather than everything at once.
- Leave seed heads and some fallen leaves through winter, and skip insecticides: the insects are the food.