I have always been a lover of nature and wildlife but in the past few years I have become even more interested in birds. I bought a new camera with a decent zoom lens, and that opened up a whole new world of beautiful birds for me. Birds that have always been around, but I never noticed because I wasn’t paying attention or looking closer at them.

Birds bring me so much joy, admiring their colors and markings, watching their behaviors, and listening to their unique, cheerful melodies. It is thought that listening to bird songs can reduce anxiety and depression while possibly helping with cognitive function. I know it certainly improves my mood.

My fascination, or what some might see as an obsession, has led me to learn some disturbing facts about the decline of birds. Since 1970 populations have declined in North America by 2.9 billion birds.  There are many reasons for this, but here are some of the biggest.

HABITAT LOSS – This is the number one cause of bird loss. If they have nowhere to live, eat & breed, they can’t survive.

CATS – Outdoor cats kill more birds than any other non-native threat. ​

COLLISIONS – Man-made structures and windows can be dangerous to birds especially during migration when they fly at night.

PESTICIDES – One billion pounds of pesticides are used every year in the U.S. ​

Learning about habitat loss and my love of seeing these beautiful creatures has inspired me to make some changes in my yard. I have started what I am calling Project Habitat. During the winter months I studied native plants and how they help the birds. I made a list of plants I wanted to incorporate into my yard. I will include the list later. It is important to learn about plants before you put them in your yard. Even some native plants can be invasive so I always make sure to know what I'm getting into. One website that was particularly helpful is  Prairie Nursery because they give a lot of information and have a good selection of native plants. 

When spring arrived, I got to work. Since I’m old and can’t garden like I used to, I used some short cuts to make things easier.

The first thing I did was to contact J.U.L.I.E. to make sure there were no buried utilities where I wanted to plant. Actually, I did it online. It was free and very easy. The utilities came out and gave me the “all clear.”

The previous year I had removed the grass at the fence line because it grew up into the fence and was difficult to cut. Some of it started coming back so I removed it all again, inside and outside of the fence. I dug it and raked all the dirt out and composted the rest.

My daughter and I then laid cardboard down over the grass to kill it. I have used this method before and it works very well. The cardboard snuffs out the grass. The grass and cardboard both compost into the soil and by next year this should be great dirt. We secured it with some garden staples and covered it with old soil I had from flowerpots and such.

My daughter helped me dig holes for 2 bushes I had ordered.

Edging came next. I tried to cut a clean straight edge along the whole thing. The total area turned out to be a little over 4 feet wide by 45 feet long.

Fencing became necessary while plants were little. Plant labels were placed where specific plants were to go

Wood chips were used to add a layer to help kill the grass and to make it look better. Luckily we can get them for free from my city’s public works department. They drop them in a big pile in the driveway and we wheel barrow them where we need them. Thankfully my daughter helps me with this every year.

Now it was time to wait for my new plants to be delivered and for some plants I had put in previously to come up. On the outside of the fence I threw in a lot of wildflower, cosmos, and zinnia seeds. Not everything came up but these wildflowers did. There were some batchelor buttons, coreopsis (which are perennial), candytuft, and cosmos.

The previous year I had gotten some cutleaf coneflowers from my sister-in-law, and I planted them outside the fence. I have come to really love this plant. It supplies a lot of seeds for the birds and nectar for the pollinators. It is about 6 feet tall and is perennial.

I purchased 2 Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) bushes for the habitat. Birds need shrubs and trees to hide and nest in. I don’t really have room for more trees, so I focused on shrubs. It gets about 4-6 feet high and wide, has white flowers in spring, berries later in the summer and beautiful bright orange/red foliage in autumn. Sometimes the berries are still on the bush in winter which helps the birds that stay here all year round.

I got some Black-Eyed Susans from my daughter’s yard and they seem to be happy here. Sharing is a great way to acquire new plants without spending lots of money.

I found this plant the previous year at a garden nursery for half price. It is a red echinacea called “Frankly Scarlet.” It’s only about 1 ½ feet tall. Next year I will move it to the front of the habitat. Obviously, it is a cultivar of the original echinacea, which may not be as beneficial, but I will also add some original native echinacea later on.

I also got this plant last year on sale. It is Great Blue Lobelia. Here is a close up of its flower. They say hummingbirds like it.

I added a couple of Cardinal Flowers (also a lobelia). I have these in other parts of my yard, and it is one of my very favorite flowers. The hummingbirds cannot resist this plant. This one is just starting to bloom. They bloom in late summer.

No garden is complete without Sunflowers. I had a hard time getting seeds to sprout. I think the animals and birds were eating them. These are annuals so I will need to plant them every spring.

The birds just love Zinnias and Cosmos. Zinnias are also annuals and will have to be replanted but the cosmos readily self-seed so hopefully they will just return. The goldfinches are already on the cosmos eating seeds.

As with any garden, Project Habitat is a work in progress. My goal is for this whole area to fill in with shrubs and flowers and create more habitat to help support the birds. I will also add a water feature, probably a birdbath.

We really need to help them. I cannot imagine a world without birds nor do I want to. Birds eat an estimated 400-550 million tons of insects each year. Let that sink in – 550 million tons. Just imagine if there were no birds, and that many more insects. It takes 6000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees alone.

Here is a list of plants that I have in the habitat thus far. As I said earlier, many cultivars of native plants are not as beneficial as the originals, so I am trying to focus on those.  

Enjoy these pictures of some of the bird species that I have seen in my yard. Some were just passing through and some are here all the time. I am hoping that the number of species will increase, and I can see many more. 

If you would like to help support birds there are many things you can do. This article is a good way to get started.

I also want to mention a great app for your phone that I use all the time. It's called Merlin Bird ID and it can listen to the birds chirping in your yard and tell you which ones they are. It even has a photo id part to help you identify birds from a picture. It's free but is invaluable for birders.