The garden-a refuge for birds

The garden-a refuge for birds

Food, water, shelter, and a calm environment are all part of birds' essential needs. If you would like to see more birds in your garden, here are a few ways to attract them.

Food:
Some birds are frugivorous (fruit-eating), some are granivorous (grain-eating), and others are insectivorous (insect-eating). Here is a list of perennials, annuals, trees, bushes, and conifers that can be planted to attract birds.

• For frugivorous birds: echinacea, rudbeckia, heliopsis, all ornamental grasses, amaranth, aster, cosmos, centaury, sunflower, portulaca, carnation, tagetes, poppy, zinnia, maple, ash, birch, oak, white pine, larch, pine, hemlock spruce, juniper, thuja, and fir.
  
  
• For granivorous birds: crabapple, cherry, sorb apple, hawthorn, bohemian olive, cotoneaster, amelanchier, black chokeberry, stoloniferous cornus, rustic rosebush, vinegar plant, viburnum, elder, honeysuckle, celaster, parthenocissus, and grapevine.

It is also possible to purchase food for birds in pet shops. However, know that if you begin feeding birds, they will become dependent on your food during winter months. Be sure to continue feeding them during this colder period of the year.

Their favorite foods:

Nuthatch and tit: peanut, black sunflower
Blue jay: crushed corn, black sunflower
House sparrow: white millet, wheat
Finch: canary grass, chardon thistle, white millet, black sunflower
Common redpoll: canary grass, chardon thistle
Cardinal: crushed corn, white millet, black sunflower
American goldfinch: canary grass, peanut, chardon thistle
Red-winged blackbird and cowbird: wheat, crushed corn
Yellowhammer: canary grass, white millet
Woodpecker: peanut, black sunflower
Turtledove: crushed corn, white millet

Water:

Invite birds to come quench their thirst in a pretty birdbath located in your garden. There are several different models to choose from in department stores and garden centres.

You can also build a simple birdbath with your group. You will need an empty 2-litre soft drink bottle. Wash it and cut the top off. Punch three holes in the bottom section of the bottle and thread a piece of string through each hole. Join the three strings together and tie a knot. Fill the bottle with water and hang it in a tree. If you wish, you may decorate the bottle with bird stickers.

Shelter:

Plant conifers, trees, dense bushes, or thorny shrubs in your yard. They are perfect for protecting birds from bad weather and predators. They also represent excellent perches for entire bird families.

You may invite fathers to build wooden birdhouses. Have children paint and decorate them as they wish.

Observation:

Observe birds with your group. Try to identify types of birds by listening to their chirping and singing in your garden or when you are out for a walk. Children are always fascinated by birds. In hunting and fishing stores, you can find small stuffed animals that reproduce bird sounds. When you make the stuffed animals sing outside, birds answer their call.

I hope you will have many little visitors in your garden. If you have the chance, try the following experiment during the summer. Get up at dawn, make yourself a nice cup of coffee, and go outside. Watch the sunrise and listen to the birds wake up. This is the calmest part of the day, enjoy it!

Claudine Richard
Early childhood educator

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