This coming week is National Bird Week, organised and promoted by BirdLife Australia. So it is a good time to think about birds in our gardens. I can't imagine not having birds around; they provide a delightful soundtrack with their songs and chatter; bring life, movement and colour into our backyards; and are an essential part of a healthy ecosystem, keeping all sorts of undesirable insects under control. But apart from what birds do for us, we can also think of what we can do for birds! With ever-increasing development in our city, birds are losing their habitat, food and water. In our own modest way, we gardeners have the resources to help birds survive and thrive. I think we are all probably aware that the bird populations in our Sydney gardens have changed markedly over the last few decades. For example, I no longer have any small birds such as wrens or eastern spinebills in my garden; they are all bigger birds these days!
Birdbath in the garden of Jill Hankinson, SydneyThere are various steps we can take to attract birds to our gardens. One vital requirement is to offer a source of water for them to bath in and drink. Ideally, a birdbath should be shallow enough so a bird can stand in it to clean its feathers. A brick could be placed in the base of the birdbath for birds to stand on if it is deep. A birdbath should be located near to a dense (preferably prickly!) shrub so that birds can quickly escape to safety if threatened. Birdbaths on a stand or hanging in a tree can provide more security for birds. The water in the birdbath needs to be changed regularly and the birdbath cleaned every so often. Providing birds with a couple of sources of water in the garden is ideal.
Laughing Kookaburra; photo: Mick Roderick, BirdLife AustraliaGenerally speaking, it is not advisable to feed birds. Though it can be so tempting (and I am guilty of this myself!) to toss a bit of meat to a kookaburra or throw some seed mix around to bring birds into your garden, it can make birds dependent on your handouts and can encourage more aggressive birds to arrive, disrupting the natural ecological balance. However, we can plant specimens in our gardens that can attract birds in a more desirable way, and the key to success is a diversity of flora that covers different layers of vegetation at varying heights. Providing plants for nectar, seeds, fruit, insects, nesting material, shelter and/or nesting sites will help encourage birds to visit and even live for a while in our gardens!
Little Wattlebird; photo: Mick Roderick, BirdLife AustraliaNative plants are ideal for this purpose, some examples being grasses such as Poa labillardieri and strappy-leaved Lomandra species; groundcovers including Hibbertia sericea and low-growing Grevillea species; taller shrubby Grevillea, Banksia and Callistemon; and trees such as Acacia and Melaleuca. Having plants that flower at different times of the year is beneficial, so as to offer food continuously. Low, dense shrubs provide the best shelter for smaller birds. However, many exotic plants are also frequented by birds, so a wide variety of specimens is likely to work. The eastern spinebills that once visited my garden, for example, loved my Salvia plants!
Grey Butcherbird; photo: Mick Roderick, BirdLife AustraliaAvoiding the use of harmful chemicals in the garden is an important point to remember if you hope to attract birds to your garden, as it destroys the very ecological balance that we hope to create by bringing birds into our backyards! The less we spray of these nasty products, the more likely it is that birds will visit our gardens and dispatch the caterpillars and other annoying insects that infest our plants.
We love watching the native birds in our garden. Yesterday we had a pair of crested pigeons which have returned after some time. Find the noisy minors annoying as they appear to gang up and chase the other birds away, they even chase the brush turkeys! Thanks, Suzanne. I agree the noisy miners seem to be everywhere and very bold. We also have gangs of brush turkeys! Deirdre
Birds, the only twitterers worth following! 100% agree! Deirdre
The grey butcher bird comes into my garden everyday especially for my Amistad Salvia and i love to watch the precarious antic"s they get up to just trying to reach the flowers. When the sun catches the Amistad Salvia it is a very deep purple color and so beautiful. I too love this plant. I do keep an eye on the suckers though! Deirdre
I simply cant imagine my garden without the birds, whip birds, parrots of every colour, water birds and the gorgeous kookaburras delight me every day.I discovered a Bower bird nest a few months ago (thought my neighbour was tipping his rubbish over our fence at first) fascinating to watch these OCD birds tidy their territory. I have Salvia Amistad all over my garden and it definitely suckers so Im constantly ripping pieces out which is fairly easy but I love it and the birds adore it. What a lovely collection of birds you have! Agree re Amistad - I have to have it and keep an eye on the suckers. Hope the weekend open garden event went well! Superb weather for it. Deirdre
Hi Deirdre. I have been looking for a plant then, I found your website. I immediately love it, the way that you love gardening and the benefit is not directly from the capital but admiration for beautiful creation from gardening. Thank you for your admission. I am not speaking English born, sorry for my poor English. Thanks so much for your feedback. Deirdre
Lovely to read this again D.My garden is still a haven for many birds & we love most of them.The cockatoos & brush turkeys are not so welcome! A visitor to my open garden one year was attacked by a cheeky galah as she was leaving my place!!! I love the whip birds that enjoy darting under the small shrubs, the Bower Bird, the Kookaburras that follow me around waiting for me to unearth the curl grubs & the colourful parrots. Having no pets the birds rule my garden, no need for an alarm clock here! Thanks, Pamela. I agree some birds are less than welcome. I have a very persistent brush turkey at the moment! I love hearing the dawn chorus every morning. Deirdre
I just came back from a holiday at Culburra Beach. It was lovely watching & listening to all the tiny birds there, wrens I think, with the waves as a backdrop. Back home here in Bayview it's nice to see the Rainbow Lorikeets back! They disappeared last year for some reason. I love those small birds - we don't get them any more. Lots of lorikeets here at the moment - they like the salvias! Deirdre
On a footnote, while I was down the coast I visited the Berry Garden Festival organised by the Berry Gardeners Club. I'd highly recommend it to your readers! Berry is a gorgeous little town & the gardens were absolutely gorgeous! You can buy plants too as well as CWA jams, preserves, cakes etc. The Berry Farmers Market was on too. Well worth a trip down there. Thanks for that - it sounds great. Deirdre
Lately, many bigger birds have been visiting my garden, such as kookaburras, numerous parrots and butcher birds, but the Australian mynahs have caught my eye, for their interest in my recently flowering weigela plant and the citrus flowers. They have such fun flitting from one flower to another and are a source of amusement for me, with their antics. We have flocks of Australian mynahs too. They are very attracted to my salvias, often breaking some of the stems! Deirdre
Thanks for another lovely blog! The Habitat Stepping Stones program, run by Macquarie University, showcases lots of plants for home gardens that help the local birds www.habitatsteppingstones.org.au Thanks for letting me know about that program. It sounds really good. Deirdre
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