Attracting birds to your backyard is easy by creating a garden that will provide food, shelter and nesting materials and nesting sites. Local flowering plants and fruit trees provide birds with nectar and seeds. You can provide birds with protein rich food, by using mulch to encourage worms, insects and grubs. You can provide shelter by planting dense prickly native shrubs, hang up nesting boxes and installing a bird bath.
Any piece of habitat that you can provide for birds is important. These spaces provide green corridors for birds to move around and feed. The following table from BirdLife Australia provides the types of food and habitats different birds need. Have a look to get ideas of what you need to plant help you local birds into your backyard.
What can you do to help?
Remember you don’t need to have a big space to attract birds to your garden. There are lots of things you can do to create bird friendly habitats in small spaces too. Here are a list of thing to help you get started.
- Plant shrubs, smaller plants and spiky ground cover to provide protection for small birds.
- Use pots and hanging pots if you have limited space and clump them around your garden, courtyard or balcony.
- Get involved with your local community garden and look for common areas to create a garden.
- A quick and easy way of bringing birds to your garden is with a bird bath.
Hear a few website to help you learn about your local birds
- http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/
- https://birdlife.org.au/all-about-birds/birds-in-backyards
- https://www.backyardbuddies.org.au/explore/birds
Attracting wildlife to you backyard
Create a frogs friendly backyard
Encourage frogs to come to live and breed in your backyard. Create a small shallow pond in an area that is partly shaded. Include thick ground hugging plants around part of the pond to provide areas of warmer and cooler water. Your pond will need some sunlight to encourage algae and other plants that provide food for tadpoles. Make sure the banks slope gently so that the frogs can get out. Add some rocks and logs to provide shelter for adult frogs.
Minibeasts in your backyard
Not all bugs are pests. Good bugs pollinate plants, break down dead flora and fauna, aerate the soil and provide for other wildlife. They can even help keep harmful pests away. Create an inviting environment for good bugs by planting plenty of native plants, wildflowers and herbs and use chemical-free pest control when the pests do creep in.
Find out what else you can do to create a wildlife friendly backyard with the What’s in your Backyard activity series.
