By planting fruit and berry plants you can bring a wider variety of birds to your garden or backyard. There are many birds that are primarily fruit eaters and they may not visit your seed feeders. A way to draw them into your garden is by providing fruit. But supplying birds with dried fruit is expensive. […]
backyard habitats
Snags – Homes for Animals
Snags are standing dead trees which provide food (insects), cover in bad weather and places to raise young. Snags may be created from living trees if there is a shortage of safe natural snags. Created snags can be expected to last for a long period of time. Poor quality or deformed trees, such as those […]
What is a Naturalist's Garden?
I have what is called a naturalist’s garden or a backyard habitat. You can see some photos of my naturalist garden on my Flickr site. It is easy to start a naturalist’s garden. You can take an inventory of your garden and replace plants one at a time, to those that attract native animals. Or […]
Places to Raise Young – Creating Your Backyard Habitat
A place to raise young is a final feature to finish a backyard habitat. This feature serves many purposes. a safe place to give birth a safe haven to rear offspring nesting sites to incubate eggs den sites to rear babies undisturbed courtship and mating areas To decide what you can provide take note […]
Early Spring Blooming Plants to Attract Bumble Bees
Bumble Bees are among the very first insects we see flying in early spring. Gnats and flies seem to emerge first, then the hairy bees are seen several weeks later. Bumble Bees have hairy bodies which provide insulation from the still chilly weather of spring. When they are flying around the trees are beginning to […]
Providing Food to Attract Birds, Butterflies and Other Animals
Providing food is the surest way to attract birds, butterflies and other animals to your backyard nature habitat. I like the challenge of managing my small backyard habitat. I choose plants, try them out and replace them if they aren’t popular with the animals I want to attract. In choosing what to put in your […]
Spring Blooming Flowers to Attract Hummingbirds
These spring-blooming nectar flowers are for attracting hummingbirds to your backyard, garden or balcony. Planting several flowers for each season creates your own hummingbird garden. Hummingbirds arrive in the spring months of March, April, and May in much of the northeast. And the flowers listed here will be in bloom when they arrive. All of […]
Cover: Providing Shelter in Your Backyard Habitat
You may have a feature that already serves that purpose. Or there may be a row of shrubs that may benefit from adding more plants. Some of the different types of shelter and place to hide that you can provide include: shrubs and trees (especially evergreens) thickets and hedgerows grasslands water cavities log and brush […]
Water in Your Backyard Habitat
Water is one of the easiest (and cheapest) things to provide to attract animals to your backyard habitat. And it is the most important. It is useful in attracting birds, butterflies, mammals and other animals. It has many uses including: drinking bathing and for aquatic species cover place to reproduce place to raise young Types of […]
A Backyard Habitat Garden: What You Need to Start One
Attracting birds, hummingbirds, butterflies and other animals to your garden is a rewarding pastime. I like the convenience of walking into my garden and seeing butterflies sipping nectar at my flowers and birds eating seeds at the feeders. I always have ready made models to photograph, draw and study. I have what is called a […]
