NATIVE PLANTS
FOR ATTRACTING BIRDS

To provide habitat for the largest diversity of birds, try to include plants from as many of these plant groups as possible on your property. Choosing plants that produce fruit or seed at different times of year ensures that your backyard will always have something to attract birds.

Summer-Fruiting Plants

This category includes plants that produce fruits or berries from May through August. Birds that can be attracted in the summer include bluebirds, robins, waxwings, woodpeckers, cardinals, towhees, and grosbeaks.

Amelanchier arborea - Downy Serviceberry

Amelanchier canadensis - Shadbush

Prunus serotina - Black Cherry

Rubus allegheniensis - Allegheny Blackberry

Sambucus canadensis - Elderberry

Vaccinium corymbosum - Highbush Blueberry

Fall-Fruiting Plants

Plants whose fruit ripen in the fall are important both for migratory birds, which build up fat reserves prior to migration, and as a food source for non-migratory species that need to enter the winter season in good physical condition. Birds include orioles, thrushes, thrasher, catbirds, along with those in the summer category.

Cornus Florida - Flowering Dogwood

Crataegus viridis - Green Hawthorne

Chionanthus virginica - Fringetree

Nyssa sylvatica - Tupelo

Sassafras albidum - Sassafrass

Viburnum prunifolium - Blackhaw Viburnum

Myrica pennsylvanica - Northern Bayberry

Winter-Fruiting Plants

Winter-fruiting plants are those whose fruits remain attached to the plants long after they first become ripe in the fall. Many are not palatable until they have frozen and thawed numerous times. Birds include hermit thrush, waxwing, robin, and bluebird.

Aronia arbutifolia - Red Chokecherry

Ilex opaca - American Holly

Ilex verticillata - Winterberry Holly

Rhus typhina - Staghorn Sumac

Euonymus americana - Strawberry Bush

Parthenocissus quinquefolia - Virginia Creeper

Nut and Acorn Plants

The meats of broken nuts and acorns are eaten by a variety of birds including blackbird, chickadee, tufted titmice, wood duck, flicker, nuthatch, quail, towhee, turkey, and woodpecker. These plants also provide good nesting habitat.

Quercus rubra - Red Oak

Quercus phellos - Willow Oak

Carya ovata - Hickory

Juglans nigra - Black Walnut

Fagus grandiflora - American Beech

Corylus americana - American Hazelnut

Conifers

Conifers are evergreen trees and shrubs that provide escape cover, winter shelter, and summer nesting sites. Some also provide sap, buds, and seeds. Waxwings eat the berries of cedars, junipers and yews. Chickadees, crossbills, goldfinches, nuthatches, siskins, and woodpeckers pick the winged seeds out of pine cones.

Chamaecyparis thyoides - Atlantic White-Cedar

Juniperus virginiana - Eastern Red Cedar

Pinus strobus - White Pine

Pinus virginiana - Virginia Pine

Grasses and Legumes

Grasses and legumes (pea family) can provide cover for ground nesting birds--especially if the area is not mowed during the nesting season. Some grasses and legumes provide seeds as well. Ground nesting birds attracted include bobwhite quail, field and song sparrows, and redwing blackbirds.

Amorpha fruticosa - False Indigo

Andropogon gerardii - Big Bluestem

Panicum virgatum - Switchgrass

Schizachyrium scoparium - Little Bluestem

Sorghatrum nutans - Indiangrass

Nectar-Producing Plants

Nectar-producing plants are very popular for attracting hummingbirds. Flowers with tubular red corollas are especially attractive.

Campsis radicans - Trumpetvine

Lonicera sempervirens - Coral Honeysuckle

Monarda fistulosa - Bee Balm

Lobelia cardinalis - Cardinal Flower

Aquilegia canadensis - Wild Columbine