Create a Backyard Bird Sanctuary

Want more birds in your yard this year? 

Use native plants. They look great, need no fertilizers or pesticides, and support local wildlife by offering seeds, nectar, fruits, insects, and nesting materials year-round.

Native plants provide resources for hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and birds, including food and shelter. They support insects that birds need to feed their young. Check out the following 10 plants to make your landscape come alive.

Allegheny Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis) is a small, native, understory tree with four-season interest. It blooms and fruits in early summer, producing white flowers in terminal clusters before leaves appear, followed by red, purple, or black berries. This tree is known to attract fruit-eating birds such as sparrows, wrens, nuthatches, thrashers, chickadees, and titmice.

Purple Coneflowers (Echinacea spp.) attract butterflies and provide seeds for goldfinches, blue jays, cardinals, and chickadees.

Sunflowers (Helianthus spp.) are food for many birds, especially finches, cardinals, jays, chickadees, and mourning doves.

Zinnias (Zinnia elegans) are great for attracting pollinators, especially butterflies. Zinnias also attract a variety of birds. Goldfinches are known to visit zinnias for their seeds. Hummingbirds are drawn to the bright colors and nectar-rich blooms of zinnias. Other birds, like house finches, titmouses, nuthatches, sparrows, and chickadees, may also visit zinnias.

Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) hosts monarch butterfly caterpillars and attracts insects for birds like goldfinches, American kestrels, and purple martins.

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) has red petals that attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) attracts hummingbirds and birds like purple finches and thrushes.

Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) attracts birds for its seeds and pollinating insects for its nectar.

Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinqefolia) provides fruit for birds such as mockingbirds, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and blue jays.

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is a shrub that provides seeds for ducks and other waterfowl and attracts butterflies and pollinators.