Birds are vanishing.
Habitat loss is the biggest reason why.
Habitat starts at home.
Birds live everywhere, and every yard, balcony, garden, and business landscape can help support them.
Every Yard Matters
Whether you have a balcony, backyard, or business landscape, your space can help support birds.
And creating habitat doesn’t mean giving up beauty or personal style. Native plants can be designed to fit formal, modern, tidy, or naturalistic spaces while still supporting the living food web birds depend on.
Native plants bring birds back. Whether you have a yard, balcony, or business, you can create meaningful habitat right where you are. Every plant counts.
What do Birds Need
We often associate birds with seeds, watching them visit our bird feeders, but the truth is that insects are the primary food source for most birds.
96% of terrestrial birds feed their young an exclusive insect diet.
Pollinator gardens are a great start and help support important insect life. But birds also need trees, shrubs, shelter, nesting habitat, and layered vegetation to successfully raise young.
Native plants help provide the living food web birds need to survive.
Learn how insects, native plants, and habitat work together to help bring birds back, one yard at a time.
9,000 Caterpillars
To raise just one brood of young.
From sunrise to sunset, parent chickadees make hundreds of trips searching for soft-bodied insects to feed their nestlings.
When native plants disappear, so do the caterpillars and insects birds depend on to raise their families.
Native plants don’t just feed birds.
They feed the insects that feed the birds.
Selecting Plants
Good bird habitat has vertical structure, something that can be achieved even in small spaces.
Native plants and bird communities vary across Minnesota, so some species may be more appropriate in certain regions than others.
A simple way to start building habitat is to include at least one plant from each layer: canopy, understory, shrub, and herb.
If you only have room or budget for one addition, plant a tree. Trees support enormous amounts of insect life while also providing food, nesting habitat, shelter, and shade.
Explore each habitat layer to find native plants that help support birds and insects and see how birds use them throughout the seasons.
Detailed planting and growing conditions can be found in the planting guide below.
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Download our easy guide to determine which plants to include in your yard to attract birds and help them! Whether you manage a yard, garden, small business, school or corporate campus, you can restore vital habitat and make a real difference for birds, butterflies, pollinators - and people
Learn how to turn you yard, balcony, or shared green space into bird and pollinator habitat
Create meaningful green space that benefits birds and people alike.