Attracting Birds to Your Yard

Read any book on how to get birds to flock to your yard and you'll see the same ideas over and over: Provide cover. Offer water. Have a variety of seeds, but if you can only afford one - go with sunflower seeds. Have suet available, especially in the winter.

These things all work. The birds love splashing around in the birdbath. Sunflower seeds, millet, milo, safflower seeds, and cracked corn draw not only birds, but chipmunks, rabbits, and squirrels to my yard. The suet disappears within a day from the locusts that are really woodpeckers, chickadees, goldfinches, wrens, and even the red-winged blackbirds. But in the summer, the one thing that attracts more birds than anything else is the mulberry tree.


Ripe mulberries are dark purple.

From mid-June to early July, the berries ripen and draw a wide variety of birds and mammals. These mildly sweet, juicy berries are a magnet for blue jays, robins, cowbirds, catbirds, woodpeckers, flycatchers, cardinals, chickadees, plus squirrels, chipmunks, and even woodchucks. Foxes and raccoons like to eat the berries that fall to the ground.

No denying that, while the berries are ripe, it's messy. There are purple stains on the yard furniture, patio, and driveway.  And if you walk anywhere near the tree, you'd better check the bottom of your shoes to make sure you don't track in any smashed berries. But it's worth it, getting to see all the bird activity. It's like Grand Central Station!



Blue jay in mulberry tree