“The structure you provide is important to birds. Structure and layering. All kinds of layers. That means leaving some leaves around. Some brush. The tidy look is not a good thing for birds,” said Kress, vice president for Bird Conservation with the National Audubon Society and author of the newly released “Audubon Society Guide to Attracting Birds: Creating Natural Habitats for Yards Large and Small.”

Kress, who also teaches field ornithology at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, takes designing wildlife- friendly habitat beyond the Big 3 of food, water and cover. He suggests adding such come-hither things as nesting, dusting and roosting sites, controlling predators, primarily cats, using social attractants like decoys and recordings of breeding birds. He also calls for eliminating... Read On

“I say flying into, but hovering into is a better description. They leave the patio glass filthy with marks from their feet. I thought they may be looking for a place to nest, but there is absolutely not one place near the patio doors to build a nest. "Needless to say they are keeping my deck and railing an absolute mess with waste from sitting on the ledge or deck and then flying up to the patio doors. The patio doors do face the east and do get a reflection until about noon. But it doesn't seem to make much difference what time it is. I have even draped plastic wire mesh over the outside of the doors but that doesn't deter them from flying up and into the mesh in an attempt to get... Read On

By Kathy Piper
I ENVY BIRDERS who own a lot of land: Having a vast expanse of plants that lure an abundance of birds to my property is a dream I’ve had for years.

Until I win the lottery, though, I’ll have to settle for my 50 x 117-ft. plot of ground. However, having a small yard doesn’t mean I don’t attract birds. Although there are limitations to what can be grown, an undersized lot can still be graced with a variety of plants. It’s not how much land you have, but what you do with it that counts. The trick is knowing which plants to use and how to arrange them. Because space is at a premium in a small yard, each plant must well serve the birds’ needs. Plants have different attributes for attracting birds, and they can be grouped into categories according to these characteristics. There are... Read On