Bird-Friendly Gardening: Guidance and Projects for Supporting Birds in Your Landscape by Jen McGuinness

Bird-Friendly Gardening is the definitive guide to planting a wildlife-welcoming home landscape filled with a diversity of native plants that feed, shelter, and support birds. *2025 GardenComm Silver Laurel Media Award Winner* With hundreds of North American bird species facing population decline or at risk of extinction, right now is the perfect time to create a home-based habitat garden that offers birds the resources they need to safely feed, migrate, breed, and thrive. Thankfully, making your outdoor space a secure and comfortable haven for many different bird species isn’t a Herculean task. It’s a matter of understanding the needs of our avian friends and how native plants, combined with purposeful garden design, can help meet those needs. And that’s exactly the know-how you’ll find here, outlined in a simple-to-follow, actionable format by author Jennifer McGuinness. Step beyond the seed-filled bird feeder and suet block, and Read more

From the Publisher What Birds Eat (Here's a Hint-- Your Garden Has It!) Wood Warblers Wood Warblers aren't picky with their appetite of insects, berries, plant seed, spiders, and more! Hummingbirds Hummingbirds feast on insects, sugar water, tree sap, and nectar. Swallows Swallows tend to eat caterpillars, insects, and berries. A male Baltimore Oriole feeds on grape jelly at this specialized feeder. You Can Even Plant Your Own Rain Garden! Rain gardens are shallow depressions (usually bowl-shaped) and feature plants that can tolerate water fluctuation—and help the earth slowly absorb the water back into the soil. Incorporating Bird Feeders into Your Garden Bird-friendly habitats contain a variety of food for birds to eat: larvae to feed their young, berries to relish, and seeds to devour. But using bird feeders to provide supplemental food—seed, suet, fruit, or nectar—along with the native plants your garden offers is an additional way to entice birds to the garden. Starting Small You—as a gardener, bird enthusiast, bird watcher, bird feeder—play an important role in the conservation and success of the songbirds who gather in our gardens. Often making simple choices can go a long way in making properties bird-friendly and sustainable.