To anyone who has a mulberry tree (Rita, Stephen)..do you have the white or the native red? Mulberry is the new bee in my bonnet and I want one badly. You don't need a male and a female, do you? What do you suppose are the chances of finding a Red weeping mulberry? I know, I ask too much...

I bought an Illinois Everbearing Mulberry from Edible Landscaping late last summer. It came with about three berries on it already!

I have tasted some of the mulberries from the trees that grow wild around here and the berries are not much, very bland.I don't know what kind they are. The fruit from my Illinois Everbearing is juicy and sweet. Not bland at all. Plus the tree bears fruit for a long period of time. I think its the best Mulbery you can get.

Here is a link that might be useful: Edible Landscaping

I didn't plant it, but I've learned that my native cottonwood tree is a host plant for tiger swallowtail caterpillars.

I also love my Asclepias incarnata, shrub-sized perennials, for hosting monarch caterpillars. Just today, in fact, I saw a Monarch laying eggs on them.

Don't want this thread to drop off. Too many good ideas.

Great thread, lets move this one up to the top!

I've got the native Escarpment Black Cherry (small fruits), Black Walnut (nuts), Possumhaw Holly (I'm hoping one of them will turn out to be female for berries, the only one big enough to flower is a male), Ashe Juniper (berries), Scrub Live Oak and Texas Red Oak (acorns), Texas Persimmon (fruits), passionflower vines (for butterflies), Flame Acanthus (hummingbirds), Turk's Cap (hummingbirds and butterflies), several kinds of Eupatoriums (butterflies), Hop-Trees (very small, but it's a butterfly host), Flameleaf Sumac (bees and other insects all over it when it blooms), Frostweed (bees/butterflies) and Maximilian Sunflower (butterflies and bees). That's a few of my wildlife plants. A lot of my other plants are still small and haven't done anything much for the wildlife yet, but will someday.

Depending on what time of year it is, you can have different answers. Right now, the Winterberries and Crabapple are most popular. In the summer its Serviceberries.

For those in the Pacific Northwest, nothing beats Cascara. We have serviceberries and Indian Plums as well and, while the birds do like them, they don't hold a candle (apparently) to the Cascara berries. The tree itself is smallish and is hard to distinguish from a red alder. I don't think I've ever seen one for sale at a nursery. If you can get your hands on one, though, by all means do. I've never seen anything like it -- I think the berries must be the bird equivalent of heroin.
-Tresor

I found a link to a nursery that carries Cascara, for those who are interested:

http://www.oakpointnursery.com/cascara.htm

-Tresor

It was not a specific tree, but just the presence of trees. We moved to this house a few years ago, and no trees were in the back yard. We put a birdbath in, and only a few birds came around. Only two years after planting a few small apple trees, the number of birds visiting is 10 times greater. They really enjoy perching locations.

This summer's experiment will be growing scarlet runner beans on a 14' bamboo in a teepee shape - apparently, it attracts hummingbirds.

My best two this winter were swamp rose and eastern red cedar...bluebirds in particular enjoyed the cedar berries all winter long.

Someone's been eating the smilax recently as well, but I'm not sure who.

Wow...this thread is over 2 years old!

Recently I have gotten interested in Bramble fruit. I am planting lots of different types of Raspberries and Blackberries this spring. I am sure the local Catbirds, Robins, Mockingbirds and Orioles will get their share of the fruit. The Black Raspberries grow like shrubs and are thorny so that might be a good nesting spot for backyard birds too!

Here is some really neat information on the Cascara that Tresor was talking about...
I may push the limits and try a couple.
I seem to have tons of luck with stuff everyone says
"you cant grow that here"
I will first have to see if I can find a spot for one..
hehehe..
But it is a very interesting tree...
EG

Here is a link that might be useful: Cascara information, and order phone #

What a wonderfully helpful thread! Thank you all! :)

"Actually it is a mocking bird that looks and sounds just a little bit different from the ones I was used to seeing. He has more dark gray and he sounds just like a cat mewing. The family that were in the Rhodie across the street had more light gray, were smaller, had more white on them, and they didn't make that mewing sound ever."

I'd guess your Mockingbird that meows might be a Grey Catbird since that's the sound they make. On the other hand since Mockers can mimic most anything I might be wrong.

In my yard like Biosparite stated it's hard to beat Turk's Cap. It's a totally care free, Hummingbirds, butterflies and moths love the red flowers & the birds love the berries/seed. If we have a freeze it'll freeze back but come back in the spring. I plan to add a couple to my front yard next spring.
The only time I've seen Grey Catbirds in my yard was to eat the Turk's Cap berries. Took me a while to identify it as a Grey Catbird, I'm hearing impaired so couldn't hear the meowing.

I like the Mulberry Tree. It attacts birds and animals from the fruit on the tree and fallen to the ground. All kinds of birds, raccoons, opossum, mice, deer, fox, rabbits, you name it.

For hummingbirds I like Agastache, coneflower, beebalm, honeysuckle, and salvia.

In later winter the birds go for the American Holly berries.

I love the thread! It has given me some new ideas on what to plant.

I have a somewhat difficult spot to plant. I currently have a pine there that had extensive storm damage, so it is coming down in the spring. The area is about 8 feet from my house as well as my neighbor's driveway. It gets NE sun and is somewhat dry as it slopes away from the house.

After doing a lot of searching, I am thinking of bayberry. Can anyone comment if it would be a good choice. I don't want anything with fruit as the area is so close to my neighbor's drive. I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate the purple bird droppings and berries!

I have lots of evergreens in my yard, which is why I thought bayberry might be a good choice.

I would also like to add elderberries to shrubs that attract birds. They strip them clean as fast as they ripen. Plus they look a bit tropical, which is nice in a northern climate. They do sucker very freely, but so do a lot of the others previously mentioned.

Jeanne

Bayberry is an outstanding choice!
Wax myrtle/southern bayberry - myrica cerifera - grows all over my property, and the berries are always gone by late Feb. or early March - I'd say it's more of a late season bird food. I've read that the waxy coating on the berries is high in calories, which helps them get through the winter, sort of like suet, only vegetable.
There are several mail order nurseries that carry female northern bayberries - myrica pennsylvanica - so you could determine the sex of your bushes - only the females make berries.
Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: I Think Pine Ridge Gardens in Arkansas Carries Female Northern Bayberry

This is a wonderful thread... I've learned ever so much from all of you... thank you...

I've ordered a Nanking Flowering Cherry... I'm sure I'll like eating the cherries, & I assume I'll have to compete with the birds for them... anybody have experience with them?..

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1344364}}

This is a very good thread with lots of information. Much too good to let drop off page ten.

Thought I would revive this thread and see if there were any new ideas out there. :-)

My favourite on my modest sized city lot is my serviceberries. I have 6 and plan to add a few more still. They are not only great food for wildlife but they are beautifully shaped, in spring they have lovely white flowers, the berries change colour and in the fall they are flourescent orange.

The other shrubs that the birds love here are the Nannyberries, Arrowwood Viburnums, Elderberries, Alternate Leaf Dogwood, Highbush Cranberry, Red Osier Dogwoods and Grey Dogwood.

We've also added Silky Dogwoods, Spicebush (at least a dozen), Winterberries and more baby cranberries but these are all too young to produce fruit yet.

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA

What a great thread with so many suggestions!

I was thinking of planting some briar and rugosa roses. What sort of animals like the hips? Thanks!

This is a great thread. We unfortunately lost a huge river birch in the recent ice storm, and I'm trying to decide what to plant to replace it. I'll definitely be planting a serviceberry, and maybe something else, besides!

I had forgotten about this thread that had taught me a lot. Most of my ideas have already been covered, so Ill just mention two. If you have Tsuga canadensis (Canadian hemlock) take a look for chickadees. The plants have been having problems with wooly adelgid, so I donÂt know if IÂd recommend planting additional ones. IÂm also very fond of Clethra alnifolia (summersweet) which serves as a butterfly nectar plant, and has been very useful in my yard since itÂs a fairly small shrub.

On a slightly different topic, IÂm hoping people will give preference to plant natives, or at least plants that arenÂt invasive to natural areas. There is some discussion of this earlier in the thread, but I think itÂs important enough to bring up again. I saw xenya mention rugosa rose which is often recommended for attracting birds. At one point I know government (sorry, donÂt remember if it was state or federal) was recommending the plant to control erosion, but I know itÂs become a serious problem in many areas. xenya, if itÂs invasive in your area, you might want to look for alternatives. I tend to err on the side of caution, since sometimes a plant not listed as invasive now, may be listed as such later.

Also mentioned earlier in the thread, was the UConn Plant DB. IÂm linking to their search feature which I think will be useful to a fair number of people. ItÂs geared towards Connecticut, but I find most of it applies to me here in NJ, and even to such places as Illinois. Native ranges are included. If you looks towards the bottom of the page youÂll see choices for Wildlife Value, Butterfly Adult Attractant, and Butterfly Larvae Attractant. Have fun everyone.

Lori

This is a great example that it takes more than just hanging a bird feeder to attact birds. Birds not only love to eat the seeds and berries we provide by planting shurbs, they also need the protection that all these plants provide.

Thanks to all that commented - this is a valuable thread. And also thanks to all the birds that come into our yards and providing us with hours of enjoyment!

It would be nice to have this posted preserved in a FAQ section.

Mike

Yes to that, for sure. Searches have been bringing me back to this thread ever since it was started.

Another plant: Cotoneaster lacteus (Parney cotoneaster), a had-to-have after I saw those flanking a friend's driveway entrance alive with dozens of happy cedar waxwings late one winter when the berries were ready. They were so busy eating they didn't leave as we strolled up but just kept hopping around inside the shrubs from berry cluster to berry cluster. This shrub is evergreen here in zone 7 Georgia, with a nice arching habit, and is pretty healthy and disease-free for a cotoneaster.

Point well taken and repeated Lori!!

Rosie, Cotoneaster is horribly invasive AND non-native. There are lots of good substitutes. Please check a list for your area. Berrying shrubs are notorious for causing problems as birds naturally spread them by eating the berries and defecating the seeds.

In my yard the birds favorites are Black Gum, Black Cherry, and the oaks.

This fall I put in Callicarpa, chokeberry, elderberry, and American bittersweet.

For butterlies: liatris, beebalm, sages, daylily, lobelia, black-eyed susan, butterfly bush, phlox, and honeysuckle.

Wow, everyone here has such great ideas. I have no trees that make berries but I am very interested in the serviceberry and possibly the gray dogwood.

I have a lot of birds here on my lot because out front I have a pine tree, spruce and a fig. They are absolutely huge and provide so much protection for the birds and rabbits. I know that tons of birds nest in these and rabbits live under.

Unfortunately, these trees have to come down soon because they are very old and unkempt. One is dying. I am struggling here :( because I am interested in the berry trees but feel that it is so important to have a wonderful shelter tree for the animals too.

I would like to find something that would fit in with the serviceberry or dogwood. It seems that a fig, spruce or pine would not look good next to one of these trees.

I just have to keep some kind of shelter and safe place for my outside creatures.

Can anyone help me?? Thanks.

This is a great thread and I'm glad it's still around after 5 years.

My yard is pretty wildlife friendly, with a diverse mix of mature native (and some non-native) trees and shrubbery, both deciduous and evergreen. I also have ever-expanding gardens that are full of plants for the birds and pollinators.

However I have serious infestations of some invasive non-natives (Norway maple, Oriental bittersweet, Shrub honeysuckle, Common Buckthorn, etc.) so the plan is to eradicate these as much as possible and plant natives that will provide food and cover in their place.

I ordered 80 native tree and shrub seedlings from the NH Nursery and they are sitting in nursery beds growing happily and waiting to be planted out. These include Viburnum, Dogwood, Mountain Ash, and Bayberry. I also planted Elderberry and many new native perennials and grasses. I can't wait to watch these grow and see what kind of wildlife enjoys them!

This spring I dug out a 45-year old Burning Bush and replaced it with a six-foot Amelanchier lamarkii. Saw the Catbirds on it everyday when the berries were ripe in June. This Serviceberry may end up being my favorite tree in the yard!

I also think that having an organic yard is very important to attract wildlife, especially birds. Insects are a large part of most birds' summer diet, so having a healthy insect population is very important (deer ticks and mosquitoes may be exceptions! LOL). Many people seem to have a knee-jerk reaction when they see a bug to kill it!! My son complained about how many bugs there were when he was mowing the lawn yesterday, but I told him "That's good! Lots of bugs for the birds to eat!" :)

To Love4nature, what a shame that you have to cut down all three of those large trees you have. Is there any way you can leave one of them standing?

The tree species of Amelanchier and Cornus only grow about 15-25 feet, so maybe you could pick evergreens that grow approx the same size. How about Hollies or Rhododendrons? Or maybe a smaller cultivar of a native evergreen tree?

I planted 7 Emerald green Arborvitae along one side of my property to fill in a gap in a partly shady mostly evergreen border. They only grow about 3-4 feet wide and 12-15 high. Already I noticed that all kinds of moths like to rest in them during the day. When they're larger, I'm hoping the birds will nest in them.

I love this thread and have printed it off. I am going to look up all of these plants and see what can be hardy in my zone 7 in Tenn. I have loved reading all the stories and thanks to everybody for helping teach the new people, like me, what we can plant to help the animals and birds. Of course you can read information on everything on the internet but i like the real experiences that im reading here. The tried and true methods that work best from personal experiences :-)~~~~~Thanks so much, Bonnie

Thanks for all the postings. Thanks also for concern about spreading invasive plants beyond your yard. Some good places to quickly learn what's invasive in your area are these websites.

http://www.invasive.org/
http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/

http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/plants/main.shtml

Beebalm - for hummers. Best thing in our yard for frequency of hummingbird use.

I happened to haul this thread out of my bookmarks - amazing it's still around.

Around one of our gardens we've created a native shrub 'gallery' for birds just by taking out hardwoods like maple and birch. This leaves elders, serviceberry,mountain ash, dogwood, and we transplanted in some highbush cranberry. Three years on the bird population has definitely increased. Potential problem is that the garden consists of raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. So far, not too much predation but I'm always a little worried when I see birds in the cultivated shrubs.

Those are great pictures - I've never seen white beebalm before - beautiful.

Thanks paulns. We've had very few problems with birds and berry bushes. Only thing we've had to protect from birds has been a pie cherry tree. I thought chickadees were raiding our currents and goose berries but they were after a leaf eating bug. Birds seem to prefer berries/fruit that are past when we'd pick them - over-ripe or dried. We're in NE WA.

We still have white and red beebalm. The pink didn't survive being transplanted. I hope I can find beeblam locally on sale somewhere. Right now our plants are attracting mostly bumble bees. The hummers are fewer and farther between now. Have only seen one in the last 3 or 4 days. Just a week or two ago I couldn't look out into the yard without seening at least a couple.

Steve

There's a demand for red beebalm around here, from friends, even though that always seemed the most common colour to me. We have shades of pink and lavender and magenta, with red getting scarcer (ironically). I read in a herb book the other day that despite the name beebalm doesn't attract bees that much and thinking about this realized that in fact I rarely see bees in the beebalm! I see plenty on the echinacea though.

I know what you mean about pie cherries - the neighbours have some and leave them to be pecked - one or two pecks per cherry - by birds. I check our blackberries daily and the birds seem to leave them alone, even though they're around. I think if they were eating the berries we'd find some on the ground, which we don't.

Scared up a batch of young partridge today in the garden - they were probably in the viburnum cassinoides. We could almost set our watches - or calenders - by their arrival.

The hummers are gone from here - at least 2 weeks ago. Our beebalm does attract bees - lots of bumble bees. They are still visiting the beebalm by the dozens. We saw honey bees early in the year and I haven't noticed one since. Guess they took a hit in our area too.

Highbush cranberry (a viburnum, right?)

We had 3 of these in Wisconsin, and the birds wouldn't eat them until they started to ferment. I think it was in winter. Then they would feast. We'd have a flock of drunk birds to watch for a few days. That was fun.

Yes, Laura, highbush cranberry is Viburnum trilobum. Lovely native shrub.

Yes Highbush cranberry is a wonderful shrub. Here, at least, the birds leave them alone until late winter when cedar waxwings come along and feast on them...

Right now we're seeing a lot of bees and a variety of predatory insects on the (non-native) butterfly bushes - do they count?

Awesome thread, BUMP!

Thought that I would post of photo of my favorite
this is a linden vibirnum

Excuse the photoshop effects I did .

{{gwi:280495}}

That's a beautiful viburnum in the above post! I am trying to landscape for wildlife in my yard, and this has been such a useful thread!

So far, in my yard, a large holly seems to be the "favorite" of most wildlife. The birds use it for shelter year round, and it comes alive with bees in the spring when it flowers.

Much of the recent plantings I have made (I only moved into my current house ~3 years ago) haven't been super succesful in attracting wildlife. I suspect the problem is that my yard is in the midst of a suburban residential area that almost entirely consists of manicured, empty green lawns. Maybe my lone yard, diversely planted as it is becoming, just isn't enough attraction for most wildlife? Birds in particular seem few and far between, though I do notice a variety of bees and other pollinators in the spring. Sadly, my neighbor just cleared out all the undergrowth and brush in a small patch of woods on his property because, as he told me, he was "afraid of snakes." I am worried that the brush pile I am trying to create on my own property will not last long...the folks in this neighborhood like to complain about any landscaping that deviates from the manicured norm. But I am trying!

Claire

Claire,
thanks - I have several of these in my yard and they are a favorite of the catbirds and cedar waxwings.
3 things to help attact birds is clean water, food and habitat. (you seem to have some cover)
You dont mention if you feed birds. A feeder with sunflower seeds is always a winner. A couple of bird houses and a well maintianed bird bath.
Many homeowners are slowly getting away from the multi step lawn fertilizer programs and the excessive chemicals for the perect lawn.
Birds will find your yard. It just takes time !

What a great thread. Read it for the first time and bumping to the top.

I've found some great plants for pollinators to be salvia (early spring) and mountain mint/sweet pepperbush are bee magnets in the late summer/early fall. Between my feeder and the bee balm/lobelia located right next to it, rarely does 15 min pass in mid to late summer when I can't spot a hummer. Finches love the coneflower I leave up in the fall after it deadheads. I get spicebush swallowtail every year without fail on my spicebush. I let virginia creeper take over my garage and the birds love the berries in early fall and I've seen some huge caterpillars on the leaves. Goldenrod has been a host plant for many a moth. Saw my first luna moth last year resting on an american cranberry viburnum.

Additionally, I have the following trees: 2 white oak, 2 serviceberry, atlantic white cedar, sourwood, eastern red cedar, quaking aspen, dogwood, sweetbay magnolia, black birch, eastern wahoo.

Hello! This is my first post but I wanted to throw in my two cents.

I'm not sure what the tree is called (Useless right? lol) but I live in Oklahoma and we have these large trees/bushes that range from 10-15 feet in height (usually), and their diameter is usually anywhere from 6-12 feet at their widest point. (Sorry for lack of description and no name, Come Monday I'll be able to get an up-close look at one and I'll try to get the name) But I know from personal experience that for some reason all types of birds are drawn to it and they get inside (the inside is clear of foliage) and chirp like crazy, its pretty neat if its not near your bedroom window.

Ironwood trees are the number one tree for wildlife around here. Everything from orioles to quail to hummingbirds to rabbits. Aloes and Pomegranates in the winter attract songbirds and hummingbirds. Blanketflowers and sunflowers for finches. Penstemon in the spring for hummingbirds. Palo verde trees for quail and verdins. That's the main ones that come to mind right now lol.

This is a great resource. http://www.bringingnaturehome.net/what-to-plant.html Consider insects and not just berries. Caterpillars are essential for nestlings and migrating warblers and vireos. Leaves with holes means you are providing food for birds.