Three Tips for Attracting Birds to Your Yard in the Winter

By Monrovia

While birds provide amusement year-round, there’s something especially alluring about birding in the winter: enjoying the entertainment and connection to nature helps these colder months fly by. Your landscape can play a big role in attracting birds throughout the colder months, and supplying the necessities can even double the number of bird species that come into your yard in the winter. What exactly is needed to help these little creatures thrive? Here are three tips to help welcome more birds into your yard.

Provide Abundant, Regular Food

Planting a winter berry bird buffet full of shrubs with berries keeps birds happy, healthy and coming back for more. Foraging birds need a diet of heavy-duty foods like berries that are full of sugars, fats and antioxidants with lots of calories to survive cold winter nights. Plus, as an added benefit, those same plants will help attract pollinating insects when they flower in the spring.

Provide a variety of berry-producing shrubs and vines that provide fruits at different times. You’ll want something with fruit in the late summer, fall and early winter. When possible, choose plants that are native to your region because birds recognize them, and thus spend less energy foraging.

There are several options that produce loads of tasty berries which will have birds flocking to your yard. Favorites include:

• Magical® Amore Holly: A fast-growing, upright female holly that produces an abundance of red berries that are loved by birds. Pair with a male blue holly pollinizer like Blue Prince for a prolific berry set. Partial to full sun. Up to 7' tall, 3' wide. Zones 4-8. Attracts: Robins, blackbirds, swallows, thrushes, bluebirds, cedar waxwing.
• Darkstar® Creeping Oregon Grape: A low, spreading evergreen shrub with exceptional purple foliage. Brilliant yellow flowers leave behind showy blue-black fruit clusters. A cultivated selection of a N. American native. Partial to full sun. Up to 2' tall, 4' wide. Zones 5–9. Attracts: Robins, waxwings, juncos, towhees, sparrows, grouse, pheasants.
• Pink Symphony™ Snowberry: N. American native whose wintertime leafless stems are blanketed by bright berries birds adore. Partial to full sun. Up to 4' tall and wide. Zones 3–7. Attracts: Towhees, thrushes, robins, grosbeaks, waxwings, pine siskins, chickadees.
• Sparkler® Arrowwood Viburnum: Large, upright N. American native produces loads of fatty (26%), blue-black berries in winter. Partial to full sun. Up to 15' tall and wide. Zones 4–9. Attracts: Robins, bluebirds, thrushes, vireos, kingbirds, juncos, cardinals, warblers.
• Alpine Carpet® Juniper: Native to the Rocky Mountains, this evergreen alpine plant produces abundant berries, sheltering dense branches and foliage. This one stays small and compact. Full sun. Up to 8" tall, 36" wide. Zones 3–6. Attracts: Bluebirds, robins, thrushes, thrashers, warblers,  grosbeaks,  jays, sapsuckers, waxwings, mockingbirds.
• Virginia Creeper: Dense cover and berries high in fat (40+%) makes this N. American native a favorite for wintering birds. Partial to full sun. Needs space, can climb 30-50' or more. Zones 4–9. Attracts: Northern flicker, brown thrasher, cedar waxwing, eastern bluebird, Swainson’s thrush, robins, warblers.
• Brilliant Red Chokeberry: N. American native with bitter fruits that only improve after several freeze thaw cycles in the winter. This makes them a later food source. Partial shade to full sun. Up to 8' tall and wide. Zones 4–9. Attracts: Grouse, cedar waxwings, thrushes, northern flickers, and thrashers.
• Yellow Twig Dogwood: The bright yellow stems on the younger growth of this multi-stemmed shrub provide striking winter color while berries provide nutrition for birds. Ideal for naturalizing. Partial to full sun. Up to 8' tall, 9' wide in natural form. Zones 2-8.  Attracts: Cardinals, Cedar waxwings, American robins, nuthatches, tufted titmouse, dark-eyed junco, sparrows, bluebirds, warblers, and woodpeckers.
• Dynamite® Crape Myrtle: Ok, not technically a berry, but we couldn't resist including this stunner that produces seeds that birds adore. The smooth, peeling bark of this large shrub or small tree is an added winter bonus. Full sun. Up to 20' tall, 15' wide. Zones 6-10. Attracts: Goldfinch, dark-eyed junco, house finch, northern cardinal, and sparrows.

Supply Clean Water

Birds need fresh, clean water to survive, and it burns a lot of energy for them to melt ice or snow. If you’re not in a freezing climate, keep your birdbaths and fountains clean and full. If you are in a cold climate, consider a heated birdbath. Or keep it simple and set out a container (one that won’t break when water freezes in it) of fresh water daily around the same time, and bring in the frozen one each day. This helps the birds establish a routine around where they can find reliable water. 

Create Shelter

Bird-friendly landscaping also includes plants like conifers and evergreens that serve as a natural shelter from the wind, cold and predators. Providing a variety of trees and shrubs such as JeanGenie^™ Colorado Blue Spruce (Zones 2-8), Golden Child™ Eastern Arborvitae (Zones 4-8) and Gold Coast® Pittosporum (Zones 7-11) can offer birds refuge. And don’t scrape the yard free of fall debris! Birds appreciate organic materials like seedpods, leaf piles, and fruit that fell from trees.

Keep these three tips in mind, and be ready to enjoy your landscape and birds all year long.

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