Some everyday activities can be a threat to birds or scare them from your yard. With a little thought and care you can share your outdoor living spaces, yard and gardens with the birds.

Remove Threats

• Separate bird-friendly areas from children’s play areas. This will encourage bird activity while teaching young children about sharing space with wildlife.
• Be sure to use a squirrel baffle on bird house poles and feeding stations to prevent predators from disturbing birds.
• Manage your pets. Pet activity in the yard may cause birds to flee. They will return when the coast is clear.
• Statues, garden spinners and pinwheels, hanging art chains, rain chains, windsocks and garden flags can frighten birds. Large bird figures and garden stakes may appear to be predators or competition and keep birds away. Use these items in other parts of the yard, well away from feeding stations and bird houses.
• Unexpected noises like wind chimes, leaf blowers, and noise from road or house construction can spook birds. Birds use their keen hearing to listen for threats, warnings from other birds sounding the alarm about a predator in the area, and other communication. The air conditioning unit turning on suddenly or music from the open windows may frighten them. Some of these disturbances can be minimized by feeder and bird house locales. We had very little bird activity in our yard the summer there was an extensive road work project nearby. The rumble and hum of large vehicles was not welcoming to the birds.
• Backyard lighting can disturb nocturnal birds like owls, as well as birds who roost in trees and nest boxes at night. A brightly lit yard is also a distraction for migrating birds and can cause disorientation leading to window strikes or exhaustion from excessive flight.

Consider Birds’ Environmental Needs

• Using weed barriers like landscaping cloth or plastics makes it difficult for ground- feeding birds to search for seeds and insects. Robins, thrashers, mourning doves and native sparrows, like the Chipping Sparrow, will be more active in your yard without these barriers.
• Most birds feed their young insects, caterpillars, bugs or worms. Overuse of insecticides will reduce these food sources as well as the variety and number of birds you see in your yard. Herbicides kill off the clover, dandelions and other weeds that are great spring food sources for bees and later, seed sources for birds.
• Take care when pruning trees and bushes. Leaving V-shaped branches in the bushes can encourage birds, like robins, to use that structure as the start of their nest. Leaving dead branches or snags encourages woodpeckers to make housing for themselves and other birds in which
  to reside and raise young.

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  Keeping your birdbaths and feeders clean is vital to hosting birds. Seed that has been in the feeders for six weeks or more is likely too dry to be enticing. Use Bird Bath Protector in your birdbath and change the water daily. Clean out bird houses after the young fledge and you may host two to three broods a year in your bluebird or wren houses! (Chickadees only nest once—in early spring.) Nectar and jelly should be kept fresh. I use Naturally Fresh Hummingbird Nectar Concentrate with Nectar Defender in both my hummingbird and oriole nectar feeders. The micronutrient copper— a nutrient that hummingbirds naturally consume— deters the growth
  of contaminants and keeps the nectar fresh for up to 14 days.

•  Consider adding native trees, bushes and flowers to your yard to invite birds and pollinators to share the space with you. Hackberry trees, white pine, red-osier dogwood, cardinal flower and butterfly weed are some favorites. They grace the landscape and feed the wildlife as we enjoy the space together.

Article by Minnetonka-Westwind Plaza manager CAROL CHENAULT. Reprinted from the May/June 2024 Bird’s-Eye View Newsletter.