As we enter retirement years we have more time to focus on the flower beds and the birds.  Living in Southern Alberta, where it is dry and the winters tend to be long and often harsh, it can be a challenge to create the flower beds.  Hopefully in the future we can add some more of the native plants, and maybe even more more flower beds. We mostly enjoy a variety of sparrows and robins.  The crackles will move in soon, but admit they aren't my favorite bird as they chase others away.  We also have the mourning doves, pheasants, hawks and gray partridges.   Once the crackles leave we see more warblers and wrens and other smaller birds. The birds do enjoy the ornamental flowering crab that we planted a few years ago.  We also have a miniature lilac bush that especially the sparrows enjoy.  The bird bath in the flower bed is enjoyed by the sparrows and robins.   Looking forward to things warming up so I can get outside and begin working in the flower beds.

Do you have birds that visit your space? If so, where do they focus their attention? What do they do while they visit?

Robins are ground birds. Blue jays and starling climb the fence and like the evergreens near it, whereas Grackles love the tall oaks. Grackles scream at each other a lot. I've seen birds eating, cardinals chasing each other, a grackle feeding what looked like younger grackles, a lot of birds calling at one another, sometimes I hear birds without seeing them

I live on a suburban lot of just under an acre in Madison, Wisconsin. I have been gardening here for close to 40 years. The gardens are typical perennial gardens, an herb and vegetable garden as well as a large number of trees and shrubs. There is hardly a plant I do not want to grow. Until recently I have not thought too much about gardening with native plants in a very systematic way, although I do have some native plants. I have a number of bird feeders in the yard and have always been interested in birds, but I declared 2025 my Year of Birds and plan to go on birding trips, take classes and plant more with birds, butterflies and other pollinators in mind. I am trying to take advantage of everything CornellLab has to offer. I have signed up for and taken online classes, belong to the Feeder Watch program and have regularly begun to submit checklists for Feeder Watch and E-Bird. I have also been taking birding trips (2 so far this year) with the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance. There's also a facebook group called Birding Wisconsin. Those people know SO much and there are some amazing photographers in the group. My goal is to learn enough this year to thoughtfully add native plants to what's already here. I've already placed some plant orders and have some ideas. I can't wait to get started!

I am new to Washington’s Olympic peninsula and newly retired.  Where I lived previously (CO) I was very familiar with the native plants and knew many of the regular birds.  I live in a residential setting and am wanting to reduce my lawn area to attract more birds.  I have a crew of regulars at my feeders and in my vegetable garden but would like to increase the variety of regulars and have a more bird friendly/less lawned yard.  Winter regulars include mourning doves, juncos, pine siskins, and one sparrow.  When I walk near the woods adjacent to the subdivision, I hear Stellar’s jays, woodpeckers, nuthatches, thrushes, and many more (heard on Merlin).  I’d like those species to become regulars in my yard!  A key to doing this will be learning what plants are native to this area of WA, which is what I’m hoping to learn in this course.

My targeted area is a secluded area behind the garage (east wall), ringed by a wood fence and some mature trees, tailor-made to be a small sanctuary space.   There is a mature pine tree in the middle of the space, and a 8 foot tree stump right next to it that would be a haven for woodpeckers. One half of the area (south) is wet and muddy half of the year. I would like to plant trees and shrubs that do well in wet, poorly drained soil in this area.….the north half is hard underfoot and grass doesn’t grow well there.  There is a nice ivy -covered patch along the north side of of this space, extending 10-12 feed from the fence into the yard. I cleared about 30 rogue rose of sharon shrubs from this patch in 2023, when we first moved in.  This north half of the area is in deep to partial shade,  the south half is partial to full sun.  I would like to reduce the lawn portion of this whole area by ⅓ to ½ of current size.  The approximate size of the area to be nature-scaped is a rectangular 3,400 ft2.  The former homeowner planted arborvitae shrubs along the south side of this rectangular space -along the fence line, and also half of the back (east) lot line .  He also planted an apple tree, which is still young (about 2 inch trunk diameter). I have a bird feeder on the west side of the garage facing the house.  The ‘sanctuary’ space is on the other side of the garage facing the back of the lot.  So I do not see bird activity from the house save for the occasional soaring hawk and I do see blue jays in the pines that border this area.From the rear window of my house, I do see many birds come to the feeder (black oil sunflower seed and suet): cardinals, wrens, black capped chickadees, purple finches, house finches , junco’s, house sparrows,mourning doves, .and the occasional marauding starlings.  I also see robins ground feeding and blue jays which hang out in a large fir tree closer to the house. At this time, I am on the schedule for a volunteer consultant from the Nature in my Backyard program of the Audubon Society of NE Ohio.

I have just over an acre in northern West Virginia (a few miles south of the Pennsylvania line.) When I bought my property in 1998, it was entirely lawn with some shurbs and white pines (of all things) planted along the foundation. A very steep slope bisects the property at an angle. First thing out of the gate, I flipped the mower on the slope. My first bit of bird habitat was a substantial forsythia thicket covering the slope. Not the best as a food source, so I let wild grape vines ramble through and have also allowed native trees species (box elder, black locust, sassafras, and red bud) grow up through the forsythia. Tons of birds nest in the thicket and also use it as cover. It's very popular in winter even with the leaves off. I also added trees to the property, including oak (northern red, white, and bur), sugar maple, a copse of white pines away from the house that works as a windbreak plus habitat, black gum, and a pair of white ash, which have been in decline for over a decade and are picked over daily by woodpeckers and a brown creeper. Recently, I've gotten into starting native perennials from seed and have been creating gardens both inside and outside a large fenced garden in the backyard. From this class, I'm hoping to get ideas regarding what to do to make the entire yard more cohesive and more attractive to a wider variety of birds across all seasons. Am very interested in gardening specifically for warblers, which already use my yard at certain times of year. The asters in the photos are just a few of the species that bloomed in my yard last year. I used a little magnifying glass to help me key them out.

I enjoy our gardens and watching the birds come to our feeders. The property and area is new to us. We have lived here for 18 months. The previous owners built the house in 1982 and gardened the property  thereafter. We had 8 perennial gardens the former owners made. To those we have added a peonies memorial garden to honor my mom, a succulent garden and a fruit/vegetable/herb garden. The wonder of our space is the dynamic nature of the gardens. Each day in spring, summer and fall, a different plant is blooming. It's magical. The former owners were in their 90's when they left the property, so it had become overgrown. We have at least 20 rhododendrons lining one area of the backyard that are at least 12 or more feet high. They are so packed together  we only found an apple tree squished between two rhododendrons this fall. These bushes need to be pruned both to allow airflow and also to allow for visibility of the gorgeous forest that lies just behind them. The front and backyards are separated by this wall of rhododendrons and a natural arch. We love the arch and will maintain it. There are so many changes I would like to make: 1) changing lawn to meadow, 2) adding more native plants to the garden in the front of the house to provide color as well as increased diversity, 3) plant flowers in the vegetable garden and add water features throughout the property, 4) pruning the overgrown plants and finally, making the vegetable garden a magical place for plants, birds, insects and people. We have many birds visit our feeders as well as nest in our bushes. They like to go to the feeder and then fly off to the rhododendrons and fly back again. We've found nests in the bushes, in an overhang at the front door, in an overhang at the detached garage, and in the two bird houses which the previous owners put up.  

I started the course in the spring and now I'm back to repeat from the beginning. In the summer I sat on different sites of my garden and looked at it from a slightly new perspective. With the help of Merlin, I identified 49 species of birds! The little Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) delighted me immensely when it followed me around the garden for a couple of months. As you can see from the picture, there are already many hiding places for birds and insects. The photo shows a large peony bed (under construction), where a hare also sleeps during the day. I wish to add native plants among the perennials. One area is taken over by the Thimbleberry (Rubus odoratus). I have been clearing the area for several years and now I ordered a plan from the garden designer. The plan has mainly native flowering plants that are not yet in the garden. I hope they attract butterflies, other insects and birds. Apple trees are favorites of wasps, birds and rodents. I got about one third of the harvest for myself. It doesn't matter, watching the life of birds and critters has brought a lot of joy.

In the past 10 years, we have added significant native & non-native plantings to our asian-fusion garden with a dry creek bed.   Our most bird supported plantings include a conifer bed with 6 plantings which attracts bird species.   We have plantings that support hummingbirds, Iowa's native birds, such as the goldfinch, black-capped chickadees, white breasted nuthatch, downy woodpeckers, blue jays.  We feed to attract bird these bird species and baltimore orioles in the spring.   We would like to see greater diversity in birds and have been more intentional in shrub plantings to encourage diversity.  We have ample supplies of water, nectar and utilize milkweed varieties.illars, and other beneficial insects and butterflies.

I have a 1/2 an acre in North Texas (FT. Worth area).  My favorite tree is a large Shumard Oak in the small front yard.  We have planted more oaks and a redbud in the back yard, because the 3 Bradford pear trees planted in the 80's are dying off.  We have 3 small vegetable beds, peach tree, fig tree, blackberry bushes. Mostly our half acre is a st. augustine/bermuda lawn.  I am slowly removing lawn and adding mostly native beds.  I joined the Native Plant Society of Texas this April 2024 and have decided that I want to focus on bringing more birds into my back yard by planting native plants.  I use the Merlin app to identify the birds I hear.  So far the Carolina Wren is a popular (noisy one) this fall.  We have a red-shouldered hawk, Northern Cardinal, yellow-rumped Warbler, House finch, tufted titmouse and so many more.  Having a bird buddy feeder helps me see the birds visiting. I'm hoping to re-design my back yard to have many smaller hidden seating areas that will help me be able to sit and see the birds in action.  Right now if I go outside all the birds will disappear with no where to sit and wait for their return.   I'm needing to learn about adding the many different layers thru out the whole yard.  My yard looks like a large lawn with a few trees and bushes put here and there with nothing to connect and make they yard feel like a garden.

We live on a partially wooded acre outside of Portland, Oregon.  Doug fir, big leaf maple, Western red cedar, hazelnut trees, and a mix of native smaller bushes and shrubs underneath mixed with invasive blackberry, which we battle constantly.  We are working to convert areas of existing non-native landscaping to natives, but little by little.  We hope to convert at least parts of grass lawn to... something else, but still deciding. We have a variety of bird visitors that vary throughout the year: juncos, spotted towhees, Steller's jays, Canada jays, woodpeckers, rufus and Anna's hummingbirds, varied thrush, robins, mourning doves, California quail, band tailed pigeons... We are still learning about seasonal patterns of our avian visitors and what brings them.  We also get deer regularly, which limits which plants are successful (outside a small area with deer fencing around raised beds).  Wishing we had a way to keep away neighborhood cats.  I love small projects to improve our space for birds and sustainability, but can get overwhelmed sometimes when it feels like there is so much more we could do.

Our yard is a work in progress, 40 years worth, from a almost treeless 2 acres in the country to the present, with maturing trees, spruce, indigenous shrubs, a half acre of wild flowers and grasses, a few dead trees for the downy woodpecker family, chickadees last year. Yes, it is messy, but encouraging when visitors remark on the natural beauty of our yard. Robins, blue jays, catbirds, gold finches, cardinals, Eastern Kingbirds, tree swallows, barn swallows nesting in our old barn, song sparrows, juncos, yellow warblers, warbling vireo to name some of the species we see in our yard during the changing seasons .  The most dramatic change we have experienced over the years is a shift in our priorities in what gives us a feeling of accomplishment.  We started out with a  typical mowed, weed free, formal looking yard with little bird or wild life activity  to  today, allowing for spaces where shrubs, trees and wild flowers are attracting birds and wildlife. It feels good to be out in our yard and to think we are making a small contribution towards making a place for birds to live and thrive.  

I live in a Little House in the Woods.  I am currently redesigning my yard to adapt to the dense shade and to support the various wildlife that live in the woods behind my home and in my yard. My yard has changed SO MUCH since I was a child growing up in the vary house and yard.  It used to be a grassy lawn, and some simple gardens that my busy parents planted with he help of the grandparents circa 1962. A lawn, a bird feeder (1), a peony bed, a sunny garden with Brown Eyed Susan and Daisies, Hare Bells and Queen Anne's Lace took over during busy times. In the back up by the Woods, there was Myrtle kind of holding up the hill from sliding down, violets of every color grew in the shade of the Big Old Mother Oak. There were Trillium, Ferns, and phlox growing in that woodsy space by our childhood sandbox and old  bright yellow  hand me down swing set. As time went by ( around 50+ years or so), the trees grew taller, fuller, and the shade denser.  The Red Bud in memory of the Grandparents grew into a huge explosion of Pink in the Spring. The White Dog Wood that was supposed to be pink in memory of the Other Grandparents grew large and shaded the deck , full of white flowers in spring and full of berries that fed Blue Birds who passed through in early Spring. Now, the yard that had my dear Father exclaiming at age 89 and 1/2  that he "would never want to be dragged away from his beautiful forest view to some dreary facility for old people " ...Well since Dad passed in 2018, this yard is fully  in a tree tunnel. The grass long gone due to zero sunlight coming through, the volunteer Red Bud trees having reached mature tree size creating a tunnel of pink in Spring and cool dense shade all summer.  It is truly beautiful. Now it is my turn to say, never will I ever want to be dragged away from the beauty of this wooded yard and the many birds, deer, and wildlife that visit. But also, I wonder how can I get a little sunlight in here so the ground is not a mud bog! Tree trimming might actually be a good thing!  I have 2 Thistle seed feeders, a suet feeder, 3 Seed feeders.  So many birds come as well as every type of squirrel imaginable. The front garden is sunny and filled with Native and favorite plants.  The back yard is in process of being re planted with ferns, Hosta, Dead Nettle, Cone Flower, Phlox and WHATEVER will grow in the dense dark shade. One half of Old Mother Oak has fallen.  It has become habitat for lichen, chipmunks, and moss.  The other Trunk has withstood ice storms, wind storms, heavy snow, torrential rains and last year after the twin trunk fell, Old Mother Oak dropped acorns like a rain storm to the delight of my collection of squirrels.  Each season I have the same collection of Back Yard Birds visiting.  My favorite, a pair of Cardinals who live, nest and take cover in the neighbor's big old Apple tree. The Chickadees and Wrens fight over the "favorite" bird house.  Ultimately, neither end up actually raising their young there.  I am eager to expand my gardens to include more Bird Friendly Native plants.  I am looking forward to another year of doing Bird Counts and gathering inspiration from others who have developed a Native Plant yard with Birds in mind.  By Ann Marie

My home sits on 5 acres in Northern New England. It is mostly wooded and very sloped. There is “open” space but much of the border of this lawn is shaded by large white pine, red oak, paper birch and hemlock.  My current feathered visitors that I know about are barred owl, nuthatch, robins, an occasional wood thrush. The phoebe family unfortunately did not return this year to their nest atop my floodlight. But for the first time I heard a broad wing hawk in the woods. Hummingbirds frequent my 3 feeders. I have a naturally occurring milkweed patch that I refuse to mow despite its taking up space in the sunniest part of my lawn. I have just built 2 raised beds in sunny warm spots near the house and hope to fill them with colorful native plants and flowers that help birds and pollinators thrive. I have a few other garden spaces but in order to get enough sunlight, I would have to take down more trees which I am not willing to do. One section of lawn I would like to designate as “meadow” but again, I am not sure if it receives enough sun to be of much use.

I have a small yard in the city of Seattle. Many different birds (black-capped and chestnut-backed chickadees, var. sparrows, flickers, red-breasted nuthatches, bushtits, juncos, downy woodpeckers, hummingbirds) visit my feeders.  But, I decided to renovate my small back yard last Fall, removing turf, installing pathways, some native plants, and a small bird bath, even a snag!, working my way toward a yard that supports diverse life as much as possible. I had to "cage" many (15) of the new plants when I discovered the new shoots being eaten. We've had an influx of bunnies this season. This Fall, I want to supplement the native plants that have survived with others. I am looking to learn more about West coast native pants in this course. Having beauty, fragrance, lots of insects, pollinators, butterflies a diversity of birds, that's my goal.

A few years ago, we bought a house with a pool here in North Carolina. Our property is in the woods with mostly pines but also crepe myrtles, oaks, and one struggling magnolia. We keep our pool chemicals as low as possible since wildlife likes to drink from the pool, especially dragonflies. We have bird baths and bee cups for birds and insects. To keep down mosquitoes, I built a dragonfly habitat and added a mosquito dunk that only hurts the mosquitoes and nothing else. It worked! We've had three times as many dragonflies this year and they've feasted on mosquitoes and more! We also have many butterflies and moths, some bees, and about 15 types of birds that I've recorded on my Merlin app so far. We're planning to replace the many non-native plants we inherited with native plants, but this will take time. Our next goal is to replace our butterfly bush with a native plant that is equally appealing to pollinators. We don't use pesticides, so Japanese Stiltgrass (?) has taken over this year. We've started removing it by hand. We're also trying to figure out what to do with our drainage field. (We're on well water plus septic). We can't build anything on it, but perhaps we could turn it into a wildflower meadow? Again, the 'how' is what we're trying to figure out. And we worry about creating more places for copperheads to hide. My friend and my dog were both bitten by them, so we'd like to keep them at bay. Open to any suggestions. :)

We are so lucky because we bought a property 10 years ago that bird lovers had owned.  Our gardens are filled with native plants and we have something blooming from early spring to late fall that birds and p0llinators love.  We have so many insects that i have never seen anywhere else.  But I am not great at id so of course they are probably common! :) I have Picture Insect Id, probably have the wrong name for it, but it is fun!  It Ids caterpillars, flies, and so many other insects.  It helps me know if an insect is beneficial or not.  I was listening to an organic gardener podcast and she said she rarely treats her garden for pests but tries to work around them.   Plant at different times that cofound the pest life cycle, plant a little later or earlier than people usually put them in, so the pests that eat them  won't be active.  Also, she doesn't ever try to control aphids because so many beneficial insects come to eat them.  The positive outcome of this is that you leave the creatures we share our world with,  more in balance.  I hope! The podcast I am talking about is The Beginner's Garden with Jill McSheehy.  She is a sweet person to listen to.   I am not religious and her religion does creep in a little bit but it still seems kind and loving.  I love her podcast!

I live on the Southern Gulf Islands in a coastal douglas fir ecosystem, and many birds nest and spend the summer nearby. This year an Anna’s hummingbird is raising two chicks in a cedar tree just outside my window! There are spotted towhees scratching under the salal in my yard and chickadees perched in the arbutus trees. Juncos and robins forage in the veggie garden and nuthatches race up and down the fir tree trunks. We often hear and see pileated, hairy and downy woodpeckers in our back yard forest, and flickers abound.  And the list goes on and on. The edge of the forest supports so many birds I guess I don't need a fancy garden!

I would like to create safe and attractive landscaping to attract pollinating birds such as hummingbirds, as well as migratory and regional birds. I have a century-old southern live oak tree (Quercus virginiana) that provides coverage and partial shade with the advantage of sunlight entering at different times of the day. My landscaping project revolves around this long-lived oak tree (+120 years old). I would like to select flowering plants from my region with trumpet-shaped or tubular flowers to generate nectar and seeds for food, as well as hanging plants to provide cover, protection and reproduction for different species of birds.

I have a lot of birds visiting my space. I live near Myakka River State Park, and my backyard faces a man-made pond. This attracts various birds throughout the year. Some common birds I see include: Great Egret White Ibis Osprey Red-shouldered Hawk Anhinga Wood Stork Northern Cardinal Blue Jay Mourning Dove Eastern Bluebird These birds often focus on the water and surrounding vegetation, engaging in activities like fishing, foraging, perching, and preening. However, due to non-native vegetation, turf grass, and pesticide use in my HOA community, I don't see many pollinators. I want to create a garden to provide a safe haven for birds and pollinators, with native plants and no pesticides.

I love my backyard where I have places to sit and watch the birds as well as bird baths and feeders to attract them. This time of year when we are going through our seasonal dry spell in Florida, the bird baths especially bring in birds that I usually only hear, such as great crested flycatchers and carolina wrens. I am lucky to be more or less surrounded by large, old live oaks and laurel oaks courtesy of my neighbors which seem to house an unending number of birds. In my backyard, I've planted quite a few firebushes and bougainvillea, both of which seem to be popular hangouts for the cardinals, chickadees, and carolina wrens. The main thing I'd like to change in the backyard is to get rid of the grass and replace it with native groundcover plus wildflowers to get a mini meadow effect that can withstand some foot traffic.     In the front yard, the change list is much longer. The grass there covers a large part of it and once the rainy season starts, it requires constant mowing. It's also very, very hot without any of the trees that give so much shade in the backyard. I'd like to replace the grass entirely with bushes and flowering trees (under 40' since I have power lines to contend with.) My dream would be to have a water feature of some kind to attract birds and butterflies to that side. My kitchen table looks out over the front yard and I would much rather see that than the current view of grass and the cars driving past.

I live on the prairies in Western Canada and while our pond allows us a lot of bird viewing during migration seasons (and usually a Canada Goose pair and Bufflehead nest), our yard needs a bit more work. Our feeders are on the deck so not in the best spot, but mostly I see the White-Breasted Nuthatch, a lot of Black-Capped Chickadees, two Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds and the American Goldfinch on them during the day. We used to have Baltimore Orioles but I never see them anymore since our older aspens were taken down. But we see a lot of bird species otherwise as part of our property we don't really tend to (we have a few steep hills and mature pines on the east side we leave be). In the fall our Mountain Ash tree is great for attracting waxwings and the crab apple trees always seem to have Ruffed Grouse eating in them. But other than very common species, I don't see many other types of birds like different warblers or sparrows. I definitely think there needs to be more flowers in our yard and away from the house! I know my mum has always wanted a bird bath too but it will be tricky to find a good spot since our place tends to be very dry in the summer. I'd love to try and landscape to get the Orioles back to our yard. I think that would be the best species I would want to attract!