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It’s for The Birds
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: 2017/07 - July
Every year Audubon North Carolina publishes a Bird-Friendly Native Plants of the Year List. It suggests plant choices that help sustain native and migrating birds with food, habitat, and more.
Check out 2017’s list at nc.audubon.org/conservation/bird-friendly-native-plants-year-list.
Most of us give our backyards a spring-cleaning anyway, so it’s a cinch-to-feed-a-finch by planting one or more new natives in your yard this year.
The benefits are tri-fold. 1) Native plants are dying out as they compete with land development and botanical invasives. Planting natives helps replenish their numbers and sustain the pollen, nectar, bird-fueling seeds/berries, and nesting areas on which mountain bird populations depend. 2) Many plant nurseries support the Audubon project and provide a wide variety of natives. Your purchases help support our local economy. 3) With food and habitat sustained, bird populations stay healthy, thus bestowing on us their beauty, song, pollination, propagation (spreading seeds), and more. Local plants, local businesses, and local gardens keep our birds aloft, our gardens beautiful, and our bird-related businesses booming.
Visit nc.audubon.org to learn more about the project. Audubon’s goal is for Americans to plant one million bird-friendly plants this year. There is a fund-raising bird sign program to support this endeavor. Donate $25 and receive a beautiful marker to proudly post in your yard.
There’s more: Enter your zip code on the site’s database and find out what plants grow best in your area. Perhaps Arrow-wood Viburnum, Star Tickseeds, and/or Yellow Indian Grass are the perfect choices for your backyard bird habitat.
Want to expand the species that visit your premises? Find out how to attract more big-beaked birds, or hummers, or a wider variety of songbirds. Sign-up for e-bulletins. Interact with a nursery search map to find the best resource for your backyard
birding plan.
Now, without feather ado, help North Carolina Audubon plant their share of a million. It’s for the birds.
