100 Plants to Feed the Birds: Turn Your Home Garden into a Healthy Bird Habitat

In this handy guide, For the Birds podcaster Erickson (The Love Lives of Birds) explains how to design an inviting habitat for feathered friends. She provides a rundown of 100 trees, grasses, herbs, and shrubs that readers can plant to attract a variety of birds, and details ideal growing conditions and the native range for each. Bluestem grass, for instance, thrives in most of the U.S. outside the Northwest and supplies nesting material for sparrows and juncos, while black-eyed Susans produce “seeds relished by cardinals, titmice and chickadees.” Douglas fir trees require well-drained soil and offer roosting spots for woodpeckers, who eat the insects that live in the trees. To attract hummingbirds, Erickson recommends planting coralberry or blueberry, and notes that the latter hosts “caterpillars that feed insectivorous birds.” Encouraging readers to think long term, she writes that though maple and oak trees take years to begin producing seeds, they host insects that birds can eat much earlier and make a valuable addition to any garden. Nature lovers will adore the photos of birds enjoying the described flora, and the use of symbols indicating which plants are good for nesting, attracting insects, and providing seeds makes the guide easy to digest at a glance. This is a must-have for backyard birdwatchers. (Dec.)