Forgot to ask, I'm also planning to grow rosemary too. Do I need to watch out for birds when planting it?

Many birds will eat seedlings.

I protect them with a tent of chicken wire or bird netting until they are big enough to survive the attacks.

I usually start seeds indoors for all the herbs you mentioned other than basil. I have not had problems with birds eating or pulling up basil. Never seen birds eating new growth or doing damage of any sort to new transplants or established plants. Birds do check the around our thyme, rosemary and sage bushes for insects. We grow basil in containers and our resident Carolina Wren will hop around in them checking for insects several times a day.

For young plants in our in ground garden, our challenge is squirrels. I do the same as previous poster and protect with a wire cage until they get established.

There is an easy and simple way to protect any seedling from birds, rabbits, deers, etc.
Go to a fabric store and buy some nylon tulle. They come in diff. colors and thightness.
Just throw it over your seedlings, in a wrinkled fashon.
You might put few sticks here and there to leave space .
But even without that there will be no harm when seedlings are small/short.
I am doing it with my peas now. Otherwise rabbits will munc them.
Also, get non-green color so the animall can see it and will not bother to go there(only mytheory)
The thing with tulle is that it will not be moved by wind,
the rain and sunshine will go throgh it.

Birds are also attracted to the freshly turned earth - great for digging and scratching for all manner of tasty morsels. Mulching can minimize bird appeal. I use "planter's paper" in the veggie garden. Old newspaper can be re-used for this purpose as well.

FataMorgana

I planted a young sage three weeks ago and on Saturday I hung a hanging basket with five young but strong white ivy leaf Geraniums! Yesterday (Sunday) both sets of plants had almost no leaves left! This has never happened to me before. Now BOTH have a tent of green plastic chicken wire! I hope this works.

B.