Backyard Bird Habitat. Effective Process of Learning About Any Bird to Create Its Habitat. Ep#18

Apart from general bird habitat requirement in the garden, specific changes for any particular bird can be very effective for growing a bird habitat garden. I use the example of Lesser Goldfinches in this episode but the information can be applied to any bird you are interested in. I will walk you through a process that will make learning and planning the habitat, simple 

Websites mentioned in this episode 

• All about birds (Cornell Lab)

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/

• Audubon

https://www.audubon.org/

• Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center -  Native Plant Database page 

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/search.php?search_field=&newsearch=true

• Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center  - Home page

https://www.wildflower.org/

• Plant nursery for online plants - It carries many southwestern native plants 

High Country Gardens

https://www.highcountrygardens.com/

Birds mentioned in this episode

• Lesser Goldfinch 
• Dark-eyed Junco 

Native plants mentioned in this episode. 

Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center links are provided for each plant to get more information

• Chocolate flower ( Berlendiera lyrata )

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=BELY

• Maximillian Sunflower: Helianthus maximiliani

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HEMA2

• Annual Sunflower : Helianthus annuus 

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=HEAN3

• Skeleton-leaf Goldeneye: Viguera 

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=VIST

• Blanket flower  (Gaillardia )

There are many different species of Gaillardia. If you search on the wildflower center website for ‘Gaillardia” or “blanket flower” you will be able to review the different plants in that group

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/search.php?search_field=&newsearch=true

• Tetraneuris scaposa 

Same as mentioned above for Gaillardia. Please type “tetraneuris” on Wildflower Center website search bar to see various options

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/search.php?search_field=&newsearch=true

• Elderberry tree (Mexican Elder) : Sambucus nigra ssp. cerulea 

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=SANIC5

• Black Dalea : Dalea frutescens

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=DAFR2

• Wolfberry : Lycium andersonii

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LYAN

• Three leaf Sumac : Rhus trilobata 

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=RHT

Visit website for podcast show notes, images  and other posts.

https://www.gardenandnaturesouthwest.com/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Garden and Nature Southwest. I'm Vani Shukla. When you're gardening for birds, your learning process, your ideas, they go into several different directions. Sometimes you're thinking about a water source, sometimes you're thinking about native plants, other times it might be nesting blocks. All these things continue to evolve over months and years as you're creating a rich habitat for the birds. Sometimes you're also excited by a bird, uh, any bird. You've seen this bird out in nature when you're hiking, or you might have seen it online that it comes to your neighborhood, comes to your region, and you start to get curious, you want to make changes in the garden. And this I find can be a very effective way to make your garden a richer habitat, alongside all the other things that you're doing. So, in this episode, I thought I will share with you some specifics on this process. What websites to visit? Where do you need just a superficial search and not go in depth? And at other times, what are the areas that you now need to look in and learn more in depth? And how do you go from that to making changes in your garden? How do you continue to monitor the progress of your garden? Is it going in the right direction? Is it becoming a rich habitat that you had envisioned? So, for this episode, let me take an example of lesser goldfinches. Let's say I spot this bird out when I'm hiking, and I take some photographs, I identify it, and now I want to know how can I get this bird in my yard? You know, this hiking place might be five or ten miles from where I live. Can this bird come to my garden also? It might be any other bird, uh, but for this episode we'll just go through the example of lesser goldfinches and it will help me go into a little bit more specifics of um, you know, what native plants and other things. And throughout the episode, the birds that I mentioned or any native plants or any websites and other links of any other resources, I will put them in the show notes in a list format so that you don't have to hunt through a transcript or all that. You can easily access those in the show notes or on the website. So I'm excited to see these lesser goldfinches. I get curious, I want them in my yard. The very next thing I want to do is look at the range map. Now what is a range map? A range map tells me if these birds are commonly found in my region. Are they here year-round or are they here only in particular seasons? So for this range map, I go to two websites, All About Birds and Audubon. So I'll start with All About Birds, and I'm looking at the range map for lesser goldfinches, and it tells me that yes, lesser goldfinches are present year-round in South Texas, West Texas, southern part of New Mexico, Arizona, southern part of California, all along the west coast, actually, all the way up to north. And then with a different color, it is telling me that other states such as Colorado, northern part of New Mexico, and northern part of Arizona, as well as Nevada, Utah, these are getting these birds only in certain seasons, uh, only in breeding seasons. And then the next thing I'm just gonna quickly confirm on the Ottawa website also, I just keep them open side by side. So I quickly confirm that my region falls in the year round uh on this website as well. This information is very important because especially if you're starting a garden, if you make if you put in a lot of effort for a bird that is present only for a couple of months in your uh region or that is uncommon in your area, then all this effort may not end up bringing this bird. It's not that all this effort is going to go waste. You know, whatever native plants you bring in in your garden, whatever changes you make towards creating any bird habitat, it does help so many other creatures and insects and it does bring a lot of birds. But for that particular bird, it's probably not going to be that effective. So, especially in the beginning years of gardening and creating a bird habitat, when you're making changes with a particular bird in mind, then best to go with birds that are common in your area. If not year-round, maybe even in the breeding season. If it says common in your area, then yes, that's definitely worth learning further, proceeding further. If you have been gardening for a number of years, you're already getting 50 or 100 species of wild birds in your garden. In that situation, yes, you are already getting the birds that are common in your area, and you might put some additional effort for even the uncommon birds. So this range map gives me a very quick initial information on whether I should proceed or not. And if I do not want to proceed and make changes in my garden for this bird, I might be just interested in learning about this bird. That's fine. So for lesser goldfinches, I find out that these birds are here year-round in my region. The next thing I want to look at is what is their preferred habitat. In any given region, in your city, there are different habitats, there are different microclimates. The habitat near a water body could be a lake or a river. The vegetation near that area is going to be very different from an open field. It's going to be different from a mountainous region. And a city can have all these different areas. So I want to find out what does this bird prefer? What kind of habitat? And these two websites, all about birds and autumn, will give me a quick overview about that as well. So I find out leisure goldfinches, they're not picky about their habitat. They can go in open fields, mountain canyons, thick vegetation, brush, scrub, all sorts of vegetation. So that raises my chances of having this bird in the garden if I make some changes, if I add some native plants, if I make it favorable for this bird, there is more chance that this bird will use it. So you looked at the range map first, then quickly go over their preferred habitat. We're still on the same websites doing this quick overview, not going in any other uh research in depth. The next thing would be diet. So first I want to do a quick review of what their diet is. So I'm looking at Ottawa's website and it tells me that these lesser goldfinches mainly eat seeds and some insects, and they prefer seeds from sunflower family, wild sunflowers, um different kind of daisies. So now this is the time that I want to go in more depth about what exactly would be the native plants that would fit this. Now you would go to different websites, type in the search bar different questions. It could look like what native plants do lesser goldfinches feed on? And as you're going through this, keep taking notes, keep making a list of some native plants, because we're going to be narrowing this down. So first we're going to look at okay, what native plants do lesser goldfinches feed on? You have maybe two or three plants that you listed. You could then check what native plants do lesser goldfinches feed on and type the name of your city and state, and that can give you examples of some plants. Once you have a short list, then I would suggest using the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center website. It has information on so many native plants. You know, majority of them are not even available in the nursery, but my point is it is a huge data on native plants, and this kind of information sometimes you don't find on other websites, also, because the plants that are commercially available, the information is there on those plants rather than any other native plants, especially the ones that are uh threatened species, endangered species, uh uncommon plants, and it's good to know about those plants too, because occasionally you might be able to find either plants or seeds in some nurseries, very um sort of local nurseries. The biologist or any person who owns that nursery might be an enthusiast of um growing native plants, they want to support native plants, so they might end up growing some of these uncommon native plants, also. So the first step for us is to know what we're looking for, right? Then we're going to find out the nurseries where these are available. So this might need a little bit more effort, but before that, you will also come to find about the plants that are available easily in most of the native plant nurseries. So this is what I usually do once I have shortlisted some native plants, then I would go and look at Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center website and I look at the range distribution of that plant. This is kind of similar to the range map that we are looking for the birds. I want to know where is this plant naturally found in the wild. If it naturally occurs in my state, in my region, then yes, it would be something that I would want to grow in my garden as well. Because with that, you're not only supporting the birds, you're not only creating a habitat for birds in your garden, but you're also supporting the plants, the native plants that are losing habitat in the wild. If our gardens can provide a safe space for the native plants, then it will be much more beneficial for the environment because we are also supporting all the little wildlife, the insects, up the chain from the plants to the organisms higher in the food chain, higher in that ecosystem web. And you're more likely to create a healthier ecosystem in your garden if you start from the native plants and then go up. So finding the native distribution of the plant is quite helpful. So let's say I'm looking at chocolate flower, which is Berlandiera Lirata, and with any native plant, you want to look at the scientific name as well. It's not important to remember it, but it's always good to know the scientific name when you're buying the plant. And I'm going in all these details also about the native plants, not only to give you a glimpse of this process of what details you need to look at, but also it will give you some information about some native plants also. So chocolate flower Berlandiera Lirrata, it is another plant in the daisy family, in the sunflower family. Lesser goldfinches love this plant. I have so many of these plants in my garden. So Lirrata, Berlandiera first name is the genus, Lirrata is the species, and it is native to many of the southwestern states. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado. Um, but it is not native to California. However, you can find it in the nurseries in California. It is well adapted, it will do well in your gardens, but again, we come back to the same thing. Even though this plant is well adapted in California, there are so many other alternative native plants that you can find that will be more helpful to the local native insect population over there, to the birds over there. It's not that if you plant the chocolate flower that it's not gonna help anything. Of course, there are going to be some pollinators and there are going to be birds using those. But when you go with a different plant, a native plant, then in that case there will be so many other species of insects that are going to be using it. There's some that we may not even know about. They're so tiny, they just do not even get noticed. And and that native plant will support all of these because they have co-evolved. So for the states where Berlandera Lirata or the chocolate flower is native, say for example, Arizona and New Mexico, I might look for is there even more locally native species that I can find in that Berlandera genus? So chocolate flower can differ from state to state, from region to region. It can be a little bit different, and that little bit of difference would be the different in the species. And sometimes, even in the species, there still can be further slight variations, and that would be the variety, you know, that will be really, really getting specific, right? And those are more difficult to find. But anyway, let's say Berlandiera for Arizona and New Mexico. You might find online that there's another species called monocephal. So if you happen to uh get in touch with a local nursery, ask them if they have this. Um, in Texas, it could be Berlandiera Texana. So you can get very locally native, although these will be very difficult to find, but worth giving it a try. Then coming back to the bird, you don't want to have just one species for for that bird. You want to have a variety of food sources. So, what other sunflower family plants can I have in the garden? So, Maximilian sunflower is another one that is also a native to so many of our southwestern states. It's a beautiful plant, grows tall, six to eight feet. It has flowers throughout the stalk, looks like you know, flowers in the long, tall spikes, and it's a perennial. It's a perennial sunflower, so it will die down back to the ground when it freezes in the winter. And next spring, there will be new shoots sprouting from the ground and grows pretty quickly through the spring and summer months, it will grow really tall. If you especially provide it some irrigation, it will spread as well. New shoots will keep coming in from new areas uh close by, so the area will continue to expand, and if you want to limit it, you just have to limit the uh you just have to limit the area of irrigation. I started these plants with just four inches pots. I had ordered these online from high country gardens, and now these plants are in about a six to eight feet wide area, maybe. So, yes, they can be very fast growing if you provide them some irrigation. And once they bloom in fall, these are covered with so many pollinators, including butterflies, and of course the lesser goldfinches love them too. I have to say chocolate flowers and the skeleton leaf goldeneye, those are the favorites for these uh yellow birds, the lesser goldfinches, they're here in large flocks, 20, 30, sometimes more birds. But in fall, Maximilian sunflower, this is one of their favorites too. Then other plants, annual sunflowers that you can find in any state, uh, blanket flowers, which are also uh galardia, these are another one uh in the sunflower family, uh four nerve daisy, which is the tetroneurus. Now, over the years I continue to add these plants, and lots and lots of lesser goldfinches have been coming to the yard. Now it's observation. Even though these plants are all in the sunflower family, they have the birds have been known to use these plants as food sources, but still in my garden they prefer to go on the chocolate flowers, on the skeleton leaf goldeneye, maximilian sunflowers, annual sunflowers, but they leave out the blanket flowers, uh, which is the Galardia. They also do not go to the tetraneurus for whatever reason, and neither to the desert marigolds. Well, I guess they have a choice here, so they go to whatever they want, but it's good to have that choice because you know you just increase your chances of supporting that bird. So coming back to the birds, you have selected their native plants as food source. Another thing you want to look at is what kind of behavior the birds have, and again, for this, you're going to first do a quick review on these two websites, Audubon and All About Birds, and you want to look at their behavior. What kind of behavior do these birds have? Do they like to perch high up in the trees, or are they mainly on the ground foraging? So, for example, if you're looking at junkos, you know, you'll often find them low on the ground, just under the bushes, foraging, looking for things. I don't find them perched on the trees. Whereas when the lesser goldfinches come, they usually go straight to the plants they're going to feed on, or they are just sitting on the trees, different branches. These birds come in large flocks, right? So they are in different trees. Also, if you don't have trees yet, they have not grown big enough in your garden. One of the quick things that you can do is cut out a branch, a large branch from a dead tree or any other tree that is being pruned. Uh, you might have to look around for that. It's not always easy to find in the urban residential areas, but talk to people, look at the Facebook pages or groups and see if you can find something. So, what we have is a thick branch at the bottom, and then it's about 10 feet tall, and it branches out quite a bit into thinner and thinner branches, and we have attached it to the boundary wall. Other options are to dig a hole and secure that in the ground with the help of a fence post or other ways to do it. And birds will use this quite a bit. So, lesser goldfinches, which come to my garden, they use the trees, but also this branch, and many other birds also, they love to use this uh tree branch. So, when you do a quick review about the behavior, where do these birds hang out? How do they stay? Are they shy birds or are they out in the open? That gives you an idea about what you can change in your garden. Do you have similar environments to provide in your garden for the birds that you're interested in? Another thing you want to look at again from the behavior, you will find out is what kind of water source you're going to be providing. If these are shy birds, then a bird bath close to a high traffic area may not work. You will, in that case, need another water source further away from the high traffic area, further away from the patio. So lesser goldfinches, no, they're not shy, they mix in with so many other birds, they come close to the patio, um, they're in flock, they're using the bird bath. But one specific thing about bird bath that I have to pay attention to is that it should be a shallow bird bath because these are tiny birds, and even though they will use deep bird baths for drinking, but they will not be able to bathe in that birdbath. Uh so a shallow birdbath is needed for these birds so that they can bathe. So over the years the birds have been using the garden pretty much all year round, except for a couple of months uh in the summertime uh they are less in number, but most of the year uh they are very happy in my garden, but then I think, why have they not nested here? They're here all the time, but still they have not nested here. So this is an example of how when you're inspired by a bird, any particular bird, then your mind goes to everything about that bird. Is that bird feeding in my garden? Is that bird able to use the birdbath? Why are they not nesting here? So I again do a quick review on Audubon. I find uh the information I need for nesting, just a brief information, right? And um it says you know they pref they like to nest in oak trees, also cottonwoods, thick, dense bushes. So with this information, then I ask myself, okay, dense bushes, trees, do I have this in my garden? So yes, elderberry tree, it's a very dense tree, but also it's very popular among birds. Birds are there all the time, it's a busy tree. So maybe that's why they have not nested here. Apart from that, yes, there are large bushes, but they are but they're not very, very dense. There's dahlia, there's wolfberry, and then there are other ones which have not yet grown and become thick enough. So there are sumacs, three leaf sea three-leaf sumacs, little leaf sumacs. They eventually will grow and become dense. With that information, I can plan and increase the irrigation on these bushes that I already have. And hopefully I can stimulate their growth a little bit faster. But the other thing that I really want to do also is have some oak trees. Because oak trees are so beneficial not only for these birds but so many other insects, so many different birds and wildlife. So oak trees are something that I am definitely planning this year. And oak trees, uh, you know, when we think about oak trees, we imagine it would need a big, big space because these are large trees, but uh not true. Oak trees can be in so many different sizes. So native oaks, examples of some of the small shrubs would be Sonoran scrub oak that would be native to Arizona, California, Texas, and in California there's another similar oak, California scrub oak. Then there is another smaller oak, a tome oak that I would be looking for. It's native to Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert. Hinkley oak is a rare species, a threatened species. I'm unlikely to find that, but I will give it a try, call some local nursery, see if somebody is trying to grow it. But it is good to have all that information. Cottonwood is another tree that these birds use, and even though these are native to my larger geographical region, cottonwoods would not fit in my local microclimate in my garden. So learning about any bird in particular helps you follow through all the way from the basics, from food and water to their shelter, all the way to nesting, and that is what really a rich habitat is all about, right? It provides everything to the bird. Now it's not that we are just thinking about one bird at a time and that's how we're growing the garden. We're doing all these general things too, that includes so many things. If we continue to follow and make changes in our garden for any bird, there's no guarantee that that bird will end up coming to your garden or will end up nesting in your garden, there's no guarantee. But one thing that is definitely guaranteed is that it's going to be so rewarding because whatever you do to create a nesting habitat for one bird, trust me, if that bird doesn't find your garden, there will be other birds, similar birds, maybe similar-size birds, or birds that have similar behavior. Will find that nesting place, will find that habitat that you have created. So it is going to be rewarding no matter what. I find this process is so helpful because it really keeps me excited because I'm learning about that bird. I'm seeing that bird using the garden. What else can I do to help this bird make a nest in the garden so that it feels safe here? And because this is the motivation, you don't mind learning about all the little details about a bird, and taking care of all the details for one bird would help other birds too, will help other creatures too. So, this is all I have for this episode, and I will talk to you soon again in the next one. Thank you for listening. Bye bye.