Love the idea of attracting birds to your yard? Then you’ll love it even better when you discover these five benefits of backyard bird gardens.
5 Benefits of Backyard Bird Gardens
If you’ve ever considered the idea of creating a bird garden in your yard, you aren’t alone. There’s something exciting about the idea of attracting fliers to one’s yard.
Not only does it offer loads of enjoyment for homeowners, but did you know that there are five important benefits to hosting one?
They are:
1. Pollination
2. Pest Control
3. Wildlife Conservation
4. Resource Management
5. Relaxation
Amazingly, these come with just a little bit of work and preparation.
Here’s the lowdown on these benefits:
Pollination
Believe it or not, there is a symbiotic relationship between birds and plants. And the benefits are overreaching for sure.
Take pollination, for example. It’s essential for propagating new plants and replenishing seed sources from year to year.
But this cannot occur without the help of pollinators. Pollinators transfer pollen grains from like plant to like plant, fertilizing it so that it can reproduce the seed necessary for creating new offspring.
Without pollinators, many plants would cease to exist. And, seed, is not only essential for plants but also as a food source for many animals besides birds. So, in effect, pollination begins the circle of life for many gardens and, one of the first benefits of bird gardens is that it attracts pollinators.
Birds, bees and butterflies, to name a few, are pollinators. As they flit between plants, they pick up pollen on their bodies and distribute it naturally from one plant to the next.
By attracting such pollinators to one’s garden, you are essentially helping nature continue with it’s job of reproducing healthy plants one at a time.
And, if you choose the right plants for the right location, you’ll find that not your plants thrive but your bird, bee, and butterfly population will too.
RELATED: Best Plants for Bird Gardens
Pest Control
Birds are natural pest eliminators. So it’s no wonder that another benefits of bird gardens is natural insect control–all without the use of deadly chemicals, pesticides and insecticides.
Birds offer the best ecological solution to control insects because insects are one of their main food sources. They do this naturally and have been for millions of years.
DID YOU KNOW? A tiny swallow will devour 1,000 leaf hoppers in 12 hours. ~Mother Earth News
From a homeowner’s point of view, this is a no brainer. Especially, since pest control is gratis!
But in order to reap the benefits of this super exterminator, you need to first make sure you provide the best and healthiest environment for your feathered friends. This means year-round food, water, and shelter.
When you attract birds to your bird garden, you are keeping unwanted pests at bay, plus providing a food source at the same time.
Wildlife Conservation
Gardens by their very nature are magnets for wildlife, be it good or bad. A balanced garden, however, includes the right type of habitat for positive wildlife sources to keep the negative wildlife in check.
So, the benefit of a bird garden is to provide the right environment for birds to live in harmony with other creatures.
This means that careful thought is needed to take into consideration the types of plants, water sources, and shelter options from start to finish.
Certainly there’s a bit of sweat equity and a bit of forethought involved but the benefits outweigh the negative ones and soon you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of your bird garden for years to come.
RELATED: How to Attract Birds to Your Yard
Resource Management
The idea of resource management when talking about bird gardens might be a strange idea but it’s really not. In fact, you probably do this most of the time and don’t realize it.
Resource management is the act of managing all of the aspects that affect one’s outdoor space from wildlife, to water, to soil, and yes, even the plants you choose.
RELATED: Organic Gardening for Bird Gardens
All of these are interconnected, and failing to attend to any one of can affect the success of your bird garden negatively.
But it’s even more than that. The benefits of properly managing the basic needs of your outdoor space has long reaching affects to the overall environmental health of where you live, too.
Think of your yard as a microcosm of interrelated parts working like clockwork, day in and day out. If you are cognizant of this, chances are you’ll find that those things like bird and bee populations will be healthier, all thanks to your efforts, be it large or small.
You see, it really doesn’t take much to make a difference in the life of nature’s creatures. But with proper management, the benefits are endless.
Relaxation
Relaxation is the best reason why you should consider planting a bird garden.
The fact is, there’s nothing better than taking an active roll in making your backyard a haven for birds, bees and butterflies, along with practicing some good ole conservation methods.
Birdwatching and songbird identification are just a couple of the backyard activities you can engage in if you host a bird garden.
After all the hard work, now’s the time to sit back and enjoy the results of your planning and sweat equity. Because, you know that your feathered friends are being looked after in the best way possible.
And, that’s something to be proud of.
For more information on birds and backyard gardens, be sure to check out my Pinterest Board: Garden Ideas from Wisconsin Homemaker.
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