5 shrubs that birds find inviting in the garden

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Here are 5 ideas of shrubs that birds love using for shelter. Each one is a dream come true for wild birds, helping them survive the cold season and hide out from foul weather.

Read also:

• Provide small animals with shelter
• Feeding birds in Winter

Common elder

When fall comes around, birds love feasting on black elderberries. They help the tree by spreading its seeds. This shrub belongs to the Adoxaceae family, and it only requires very little care. It can cope with any type of soil and exposure. It blooms in late spring or early summer.

The flowers from this tree are either white or yellow, and you can use them to decorate and flavor salads or make wine.

• Read also: Guide to growing elder

• Cook the black berries before eating them, as raw elderberries cause stomach upset.
• Elder grows fast and can reach the size of a small tree, so give it room clear of walls, gutters and paths.
• Many deciduous broadleaved shrubs, such as dogwood, hazel, buddleia and forsythia, tolerate hard winter pruning and resprout strongly from the stump, though conifers, lavender, cistus and broom rarely break from old wood.
• Elder favours soil rich in nitrogen, which is why it often appears at the foot of a compost heap or an old manure pile.

Sacred bamboo

Also goes by the name “Nandina domestica”. This bamboo-like plant grows berries that look like red currant. They will feed birds throughout most of winter. It’s typically planted in shrub beds from fall to early spring. The best spot for it is one that’s protected from wind: it can’t cope with harsh, biting cold gusts.

This shrub resists pollution extremely well, making it perfect for urban settings.

• Read also: how to grow sacred bamboo

• For multi-stemmed shrubs that renew from the base—such as forsythia, red-twig dogwood, spirea, and brambles like raspberries—cut the oldest canes to ground level rather than shearing the tops.
• Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) keeps its evergreen leaves through winter, when cold turns them reddish-bronze, and its persistent red fruits, so this low shrub supplies both wildlife cover and winter food.
• Nandina berries hold cyanogenic compounds, and flocks that feed on them exclusively have been poisoned, so keep other berrying shrubs within reach.

Callicarpa

Pearls? Candy? Beads? Ah, the never-ending joy of contemplating the violently purple fruits of the Callicarpa bush. Even birds are fascinated by them. They only start pecking at the fruits after they turn brown, at the end of winter. For many a month, the purple berries remain on display.

When planted in spring in a sunny, wind-sheltered spot, Callicarpa resists diseases particularly well.

• Read also: growing callicarpa

• Gardeners are often advised to plant two or three callicarpas together to aid cross-pollination and fruit set, though results vary by cultivar, as some such as ‘Profusion’ fruit heavily when grown alone.
• Callicarpa flowers and fruits on shoots produced during the current season, so cut it back hard before growth restarts rather than trimming it once it has flowered.
• If your shrub is one whose berries persist into winter, leaving the fruiting stems uncut rather than taking them indoors keeps that food available to birds once earlier fruit is gone.
• American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) bears small lilac-pink flowers in summer that attract bees, and the pollinated flowers develop into tight clusters of bright purple fruits along the stems.

Maule’s quince

A very easy shrub to care for, Maule’s quince forms a virtually impenetrable hedge. Sparsely interspersed within the thorny branches are the pale yellow fruits, quince. When cooked, these make for tasty jams and jellies.

The tree is relatively hardy. It can survive temperatures hardy down to -4°F (-25°C). It adapts to all types of soil, even poor, rocky terrain.

• Read also: growing guide for Maule’s quince

• Maule’s quince (Chaenomeles japonica) bears red to orange cup-shaped flowers in spring, often opening as the leaves emerge, and they provide a useful early nectar source for bees leaving hibernation.
• For shrubs that bloom on old wood, such as lilac, forsythia, and mophead hydrangea, prune soon after the flowers fade, because later cuts remove the buds already set for next season’s display.
• The thorny, tangled framework gives nesting birds valuable cover, making access harder and riskier for predators like cats, though determined ones can still climb or squeeze through such thickets.
• Most quinces are too hard and astringent to enjoy raw, so the fruit is usually cooked with plenty of sugar, when its pectin sets into a fragrant jelly or paste.

Holly

Symbol of end-of-year festivities, holly was originally a forest underbrush shrub. The bright red berries are beloved by thrush and blackbirds.

To ensure fruit-bearing, it’s essential to have both male and female cultivars. Plant the shrubs in early spring or mid-spring. The species loves rich and cool soil. It thrives both in full sun and in full shade.

• Read also: growing holly
• Its American cousin: yaupon

• Check the label rather than the name, since Golden King is a female holly and Silver Queen a male.
• One male holly will pollinate several females, provided it stands close enough for bees to travel between them.
• Where there is only room for a single shrub, the self-fertile variety J.C. van Tol fruits without a partner.

The five shrubs at a glance

Each of these shrubs offers birds something different, and at a different moment of the year. Use the table to pick the one that suits your soil, your site and the season you most want to cover.

Between them, elder, nandina, callicarpa and holly cover birds from autumn right through to the end of winter.

Smart tip

When planting these shrubs, make sure to space them by at least three feet (one meter). This will give each one more light. Fruits will be more abundant.

M.B.