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Finches are frequent visitors at backyard seed feeders, but they also eat a few buds in spring, insects in summer, and berries in fall. And many species of birds that typically gorge on insects switch to a diet rich in berries when migrating in fall.
Growing a diversity of food-bearing plants will help ensure an all-you-can-eat bird buffet by providing nourishing nuts, seeds, fruits, berries, buds, and nectar (for hummingbirds and orioles) throughout the year. Red mulberry and sassafras are good berry sources in spring and summer, viburnums offer berry sustenance in summer and fall, berries on hollies and hawthorns ripen in fall and, in some species, last into early spring. And because an organic garden is also home to a variety of insects and caterpillars, there's always a ready food source for robins, swallows, and other bird species that rely on insects as part or most of their diet.
Here's a guide to the best bird trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and vines by region. Plant a few in your garden this year and you'll be rewarded with more birds to watch in the years to come.
Northeast & Mid-Atlantic
Trees: Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum); Red Mulberry (Morus rubra); American Beech (Fagus grandifolia); White Spruce (Picea glauca)
Groundcovers/Vines: American Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens); Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia); Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
Southeast
Trees: American Holly (Ilex opaca); American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua); Black Cherry (Prunus serotina); Sassafrass (Sassafras albidum);Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana)
Trees: White Spruce (Picea glauca); Chinese fringe tree (Chionanthus retusus); American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis); Pacific Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii); English Holly (Ilex aquifolium); Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum)
Groundcovers/Vines: Salal (Gaultheria shallon); Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens); Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia); California Wild Grape (Vitis californica); Trumpet Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens)
Southwest
Trees: Arizona Ash (Fraxinus velutina); Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis); Pacific Willow (Salix lasiandra); Japanese White Pine (Pinus parviflora); Southern magnolia (M. grandiflora):;Western red cedar (Thuja plicata); Western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
