Attracting Birds to Your Garden

I spent this morning giving a little talk on Attracting Birds to Your Garden.   The Master Gardeners hosted it and we had a great cross-section of participants - gardeners and Master Gardeners, birders, naturalists and Master Naturalists, and a couple of newcomers to the Rio Grande Valley.   Many who attended know tons more than I do about gardening or birding.   I promised that the hand-outs I shared would be posted here and that has driven me to post for the first time in a couple of years!   (Who knew I had so little to say!)    Instead of just posting the links, I decided to share the basics of  having a bird-friendly garden. 

The birds that introduced me to ornthology only visited my yard by lucky circumstances.    Back then, we lived along the Arroyo Colorado.    The native brush and trees all along the deep, wide banks were mature.    My proximity to such a large natural area was a happy accident but I learned much from it.  

So, lets get to it. 

There are four basic elements that a birds looks for: 

• Shelter
• Nesting sites
• Food
• Water                                               

SHELTER is cover for birds to watch for danger, hide from preditors,  and get out of the weather.    When you think of creating shelter, think of layers.   You will want to include canopy trees, understory trees, shrubs, and ground cover.   

Multiple layers to attract multiple bird varieties

  

Here is a printable list of Plant Material for a Bird Friendly Garden

Getting out of the rain

When choosing a NESTING site, breeding birds look for an area large to provide food, nest-building material, and good place to build a nest. 

Here is a list of birds that breed in the RGV along with materials they build their nests with and their preferred foods:   Feeding / Nesting Habits of South Texas Birds

 Many birds build their nests in a fork or crotch of a shrub or tree.   They like the forks to be at about 70 degrees.   A little pruning in early spring to give birds more options, could increase your number of nesting pair.

Hummingbird Nest in Texas Mountain Laurel

A few birds, like kildeer, nighthawks, and commons pauraque,  nest on the ground.   

Common Pauraque on a nest - can you find it?  

Dead limbs or trees are also valued nesting sites.    Birds tend to choose trees to nest in that match their coloring or markings. 

Eastern Screech-Owl in Ash Tree

If you don't have dead limbs or trees, bird boxes can be a great substitute.    Birds are very particular about their nest box and here are some guidelines:  Nesting Box Dimensions. 

There are four basic types of FOOD that a bird will eat:  nectar, seeds, berries, and bugs.   Again, Feeding / Nesting Habits of South Texas Birds will give you specific foods that particular birds eat. 

Do not underestimate the importance of native trees and shrubs in providing food for wild birds.   There are many different definitions of "native" but I think if a plant grows naturally within 100 miles (as the crow flies), it qualifies.    Aim for a minimum of 75% native for a bird-friendly landscape.  

A reliable source of WATER is the 4th element that a bird is looking for.    It will be used in drinking and in bathing.   You can provide it with a birdbath, fountain, or pond.    Birds are attracted to the sound of dripping or gurgling water and it's easy to a dripper to your birdbath.    Elevate your birdbath to keep your birds safe from predators.  

To learn more, you may want to check out some of my favorite books and websites: 

BOOKS

·       Nesting Birds of a Tropical Frontier, The Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas by Timothy Brush

·       Gardening for the Birds, How to Create a Bird-Friendly Backyard  by George Adams

·       Texas Wildscapes, Gardening for Wildlife by Kelly Conrad Bender

·       Backyard Bird-Lovers Guide by Jan Mahnken 

·       Plants of Deep South Texas, A Field Guide to the Woody and Flowering Species  by Alfred Richardson and Ken King

WEBSITES

·       Native Plant Project  www.NativePlantProject.com

·       A Way To Garden    www.awaytogarden.com  (Also a weekly podcast)

·       Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center   www.wildflower.com

·       The Cornell Lab, Bird Academy  www.allaboutbirds.org  

 For optimum bird watching in your own back yard, don't be too tidy.  Leave dead flowers to seed, let "weeds" grow and seed, and leave behind twigs, leaves, etc for nest-building.   Enjoy! 

Identifying Texas Sabal and Washingtonia Palms

Living in the Rio Grande Valley, it's easy to take for granted the beauty of our native and naturalized palms.  There are many thousand varieties of palms and 15-20 of them are a common sight in this area.   I think we should all be able to identify the plants and trees growing in our landscapes - along with the birds and butterflies that frequent them.   One of the advantages to learning to identify different palm trees is that it makes you take a closer look at the plant, which leads to a greater appreciation of each palms unique characteristics.

Let's just talk about two of the most common palms down here - our native Texas sabal and the

Mexican Fan Palm

Mexican fan or washingtonia palm.   The untrained (or unobservant) eye would say they look the same.  They are both tall with large fan leaves.

The Mexican fan palm grows 36 inches a year, maturing at 80-100 feet.   Although it's not native, it has naturalized here.  Birds have spread the seeds through our brushlines and native habitat.   A few people even consider it invasive.  But it is a wonderful food source for many birds.  We have been lucky enough to observe a flock of small parrots feeding on the ripe fruit.  We kept hearing something hit the ground - it was the seed they spit out after consuming the fruit!   Mexican fan palms line the highways and many boulevards throughout south Texas.   It does well in parking lots, grouped in large open areas, and in the landscape of a tall building.   In a typical residential landscape, it may look more like a telephone pole than a palm.

Texas Sabal

Texas sabal palms are the only palm native to south Texas.   They grow from deep south Texas south to Central America.   Sabals are slower growers, adding 1 or 2 sets of fronds each growing season, which amounts to about a foot a year.   Mature height is 40 or 50 feet but I rarely see any taller than 20 - 25 feet.   It used to be rare to see one growing in the wild, but birds have done a great job of spreading seed.   Texans use sabal fronds when building palapas.    Sabals retain their 'boots' (leaf ends) for a very long time, giving the trunk a heavy cross-hatched look like the palm below.    It is both drought tolerant and salt-tolerant, making it a great choice for coastal plantings.









Similar but not the same.  Here are the differences to look for:

• Texas sabal has a smooth frond stem with no spines; Mexican fan has short, dark thorns along the base of the leaf stem.
• Texas sabal has larger fronds (5-8 feet wide) than the Mexican fan (3-5 feet wide)
• Texas sabal has a larger, fuller canopy.  
• Texas sabal trunk is thicker than a Mexican fan's - about 30" in diameter - and it is more likely to have its boots. 

Take my challenge to learn to identify different palm trees growing in south Texas!

Zoo or Arboretum?

Fall is a wonderful time to visit the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville.  The animals are okay but their plantings are what really interest me.  Today, my four year old grandson and I spent a few hours walking and playing at the zoo.  

They use lots of natives shrubs and trees with some  tropicals tossed into the mix.   The one thing all the plants seem to have in common is they're easy care and fairly drought tolerant. 

I thought this combo was especially striking.   Ti plant behind a line of firecracker bush.  I don't know what the small tree(s) on the right rear is - it looks similar to a Texas mountain laurel.  It was about to bloom and the flower seems to be white.   Here is an up close look at it below.

This planting bed also contains the mystery tree in the back right.  An orchid tree towers over the bed lined with ruellia. 

The canopy of this Kapok tree is a showstopper this time of year.    But most of the year it's the trunk that gets all the attention.

The thorns on this trunk always draw comments

Vasey's Adelia (above) is another showstopper.  I can't think of any native tree that I didn't see today: cedar elm, mesquite, Texas persimmons, chapote, ebony, Western soapberry, Texas sabal, and shrubs like pigeon berry, Turks cap, native poinsettia, and others  that I don't know by name  

This is another little tree I need to identify.  Check out the bloom below.  

Mesquite and bougainvillea - native and tropical - both staples in the Rio  Grande Valley

Texas Persimmons or Chapote tree.  This native is dioecious, meaning female and male flowers appear on different plants.  What it means to us is that we need a male and female tree if we want fruit.   The fruits have tons of seeds making them not to good for people-eating, but good for jellies.    

Persimmons fruits - they look like a miniature pomegranate

Texas sabals behind Huisache trees.  Great contrast in both color and texture.  

If you want to get to know the native trees, a trip to the Gladys Porter Zoo will give you an opportunity to see just about all of them!

Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden

This morning we visited my sister-in-law at her new home and soon-to-open B&B.   The M-T Nest is going to be geared to birders and naturalists.   In under an hour, we saw cardinals, green jays, banded kiskadees, a Harris hawk and, of course, Texas' state bird, mockingbirds.   She told tales of the hunting habits of their resident barn owls.    And that was just on our drive up the drive and from inside the house.   It kinda reminded me of Chevy Chase's movie, Animal Farm.  Remember it?   They're trying to sell their New England country home and have enlisted all the townsfolk to help   When the prospective buyers approach the house, someone releases deer to scamper across the law - what a pastoral scene - well, unless you have first-hand experience with deer in your yard

Anyhow, it got me thinking about what our landscapes need to include if we want to attract wildlife to our little piece of paradise.   Some good general guidelines are the requirements to certify a yard as a Certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat.   It's a Texas Parks and Wildlife program.   You can find the application here 

   

Basically, you need food sources, water sources, cover from preditors, and nesting sites.  I had assumed that I'd have to have an almost completely native landscape but the certification only requires that at 50% of the planting a be native.    

Sometimes you will want to get more specific.   We've planted a pecan tree to appeal to the local parrots and leave our sabal and Washingtonia palms untrimmed so the orioles a nice nesting place.  We've left a gnarly old Ashe tree with lots of trunk rot for the Eastern screech owls   We plant fennel, dill, and parsley for the caterpillars to munch on.   And we have lots of red blooming plants to appeal to the hummingbirds.     Frogs find refuge in overturned clay pots and we definitely want some frogs around.  They are voracious mosquito eaters.   

In this new year, I challenge you to plant with a purpose.  Do a little research before you go to your local garden center.   Choose items both for their beauty and for what they will draw into your garden.  Happy gardening! 

Anacua

Anacua is a Texas native tree whose range is the southern half of the state. Its flowers are as fragrant as they are pretty. In a couple of months they will be followed by golden-orange berries. You can expect your anacua tree to bloom 2-3 times each year. I had a multi-trunked one whose trunks bloomed a few weeks apart one year. Talk about your inner struggle!