5 native plants that make gardens sing
March 9, 2018. By Cassy Aoyagi: Before I see my garden, I hear it. Birds greet me as I wake, letting me know I have another day to enjoy and impact this beautiful world. Their morning symphony fills me with hope.
Apparently, I’m not alone. Studies show birdsong delivers calm and focus. Can you imagine if we had beauty, song, and calm throughout our city? It’s possible!
Want more of the good kind of tweeting? Here are five native plants that make birds like warblers, vireos, flycatchers, kinglets, and bushtits, as well as goldfinches, Western Bluebirds, and sparrows want to make your garden home.
Sunflowers
Is it any surprise songbirds like Sparrows, Waxwings and Wrens like the sunny faces of sunflowers? The snacking is so easy! While drawing the right kind of tweets, sunflower’s tall stems and rough leaves can nudge human foot traffic in another direction.
Rosa Californica
All roses are not the same! Rosa Californica attracts Thrushes, Vireos, Warblers and Waxwings. Leafy and up to 8 feet tall, Rosa Californica blooms from May to August and offers delightfully crunchy rose hips humans like nearly as much as the birds!
Coyote Bush
What doesn’t Coyote Bush do? It keeps its bright flash green year round, beautifully retains slopes, resists drought and fire… and brings Sparrows too. What a performer!
Baby Blue Eyes
Easy to grow from seed, Baby Blue Eyes makes for a lovely ground cover or addition to a wildflower meadow between trees and larger foliage. Blue Eyes enchant blue Cardinals & Grosbeaks, Vireos, Waxwings, Wood Warblers and Wrens.
Bladderpod
Dinner is served! Bladderpod conveniently packages its seeds to go! Crows & Jays, Finches and Sparrows will like this birdie fast food. Hummingbirds appreciate the sector from Bladderpods bright yellow blooms.
We weren’t fast enough to catch feathers before they took flight, but, thanks to our friends at Las Pilitas Nursery, our LA Bird Garden Palette in Pinterest has plenty of native-with-songbird photos.
Sources and Resources
- LA Songbird Garden Plant Palette
- Audubon Native Plant Database
- Songbird Habitat Gardening, California Native Plant Society
- Go Native, Attract Birds, LA Audubon Society
- So You Have Your List of Natives, Now What? Audubon Society
- Plants That Naturally Attract Birds, Las Pilitas Nursery
- The Surprising Uses for Birdsong, BBC
- Can Birdsong Boost Your Brain, Mother Nature Network
- The Birds and the Trees, Huffington Post
- The Great Backyard Bird Count, Audubon Society
- How to Tell Vireos from Warblers, Flycatchers, and Kinglets, Audubon Society