Create A Songbird Station

Songbirds are fun to watch year-round. Native flowers, grasses, trees and shrubs provide the perfect food and cover for our feathered friends.

Ox-eye Sunflower
Ox-eye sunflower blooms for many weeks in late summer and fall providing abundant seed over a long time.

American Beautyberry
American beautyberry is loaded with clusters of brilliant purple berries in the fall.

Green Hawthorn
Green hawthorn provides fruit and nesting sights for songbirds.

Everyone enjoys the sights and sounds of birds, especially during winter months when we spend more time looking through windows. Many homeowners have birdfeeders to attract birds, but you can create a living songbird station to attract a wide variety.

The winter landscape offers a perfect opportunity to take stock of what is already in your landscape. Look for perennials with seedheads that persist through the snow and ice as well as shrubs and trees with fruits and nuts as well as dense branches to provide cover.

The recent decline of songbirds is partly linked to the increased use of non-native shrubs that do not offer the protection of dense branches and thorns for successful nesting. Also, many of these exotic landscape plants do not provide the natural foods produced by native species.

If your yard lacks bird appeal, you can begin planning for spring additions to your landscape. It's easy to add a few of Missouri's native shrubs or small trees to an existing border. In addition to fruit, many offer spring flowers such as Serviceberry and the virbunums or add fall color like the Wahoo or the sumacs. Birds also appreciate fruiting native trees like Flowering Dogwood, Roughleaf Dogwood, American Plum and Black or Indian Cherry.

Your songbird station can be designed for sun or shade. A sunny area can easily include a small patch of colorful wildflowers with abundant, delectable seeds. Examples include Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Western Sunflower, Yellow or Purple Coneflower and Rough Blazing Star. These wildflowers attract finches, mockingbirds and wrens. Native grasses, such as Big and Little Bluestem or Prairie Dropseed, also benefit wildlife and make a dramatic year-round addition to any landscape.

Shady sites, such as natural woodlands, will be dominated by shrubs and trees and will attract woodpeckers, thrushes and cardinals.

Consult Grow Native!'s web site, www.grownative.org, for more native species and landscaping ideas. You can use the site's "Plant Search" feature to find species that are appropriate for sun or shade and that provide cover, nesting or food sources for birds.

Remember, birds need food, cover and water. In addition to native plants, your local Grow Native! member garden center has a variety of additions to consider. Add a birdbath—perhaps with a heating element for winter--birdhouses or supplemental feeders to enhance the quality of your yard's habitat and help ensure birdwatching success any day of the year.

Suggested Species for Your Songbird Station

Perennials

Shrubs and Small Trees

Trees