Fans consider winged visitors when they plant

It’s not just birds that are attracted to birdscapers’ yards.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

DETROIT — As winter approaches, the drying stalks of snakeroot, black-eyed Susans and coneflowers serve a buffet of tasty snacks to birds visiting Colleen Traylor’s yard.

“The big tall stalks, I leave them up, and it’s so much fun to watch,” Traylor says. “The chickadees, the house finches, they bounce down on them,” knocking seeds to the ground, where juncos feast.

Traylor also ties suet feeders to trees.

“Most birds that like suet are tree-clinging,” she says. “We have everything right where we can see it” from the house in northern Oakland County, Mich.

At this time of year, many people are busy filling feeders and hanging suet to provide bird fuel this winter. Others, like Traylor, go a step farther.

They engage in what’s being called birdscaping, or landscaping for the birds, with native plants for food and cover and a year-round supply of fresh water.

While they’re interested in attracting a larger and more diverse flock to observe, they’re also looking at a bigger picture.

“We need to preserve the native biodiversity of our own areas,” says birdscaper Tom Small of Kalamazoo, Mich.

His and wife Nancy’s efforts are featured in a new book, “Birdscaping in the Midwest” by Mariette Nowak (Itchy Cat Press, $27).

Nowak features birdscapers in several states and describes how she eliminated lawn and planted native shrubs, grasses and wildflowers in her own yard in East Troy, Wis.

According to the book, there are 40 million backyard bird watchers in the United States who shell out more than $2 million a year on bird food.

But birds need more than food sold in a sack, Nowak says. Native berries and seeds, insects, worms and other critters are important because they’ve evolved with the birds. The right birds are around at the right time to feast on ripening seeds and berries.

“The most important thing, I think, is the trees,” says Traylor, who lives in Groveland Township, Mich., and has a residential garden maintenance business called Nature’s Image Inc. She and her husband live on two acres among trees like hickory, sassafras, hawthorn, wild cherry and witch hazel.

“We only garden the immediate small area around the house and the rest of the yard is beautiful wild wood,” she says. She gardens without chemicals and encourages clients to do the same.

Another birdscaper is Rosann Kovalcik of Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. Over the past three years, she has transformed a traditional backyard into a haven for birds and butterflies.

Working with Wildtype (www.wildtypeplants.com), a native plant nursery in Mason, Kovalcik selected plants native to Michigan. A perimeter planting of evergreens provides cover.

Kovalcik, who owns Wild Birds Unlimited in Grosse Pointe Woods, supplements the plants with feeders and recently installed a pole made from a tree that had been cut down.

“Birds land on it and they come to the feeders,” she says, and nuthatches are pushing seeds into the bark to retrieve later. She runs a heater in a birdbath in winter to provide fresh water.

Birdscaping doesn’t have to be big. In Dearborn, Julie Craves describes her yard as tiny, yet she’s counted 140 species of birds since she replaced the lawn with native plants and installed a pond. She also uses feeders from October to April.

Craves, supervisor of avian research for the Rouge River Bird Observatory (www.rrbo.org) at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, leaves many perennials and annuals in place for the winter so birds can go through and rustle up seeds.

She also recommends piling fallen tree leaves on flower beds for the winter.

“It’s great mulch and the birds love to kick through that stuff,” she says.

“It really offers a nice home for a lot of small insects.”

The Smalls live on a half-acre in Kalamazoo that had conventional landscaping until about 12 years ago.

“We had in mind not just attracting more birds, but other wildlife as well,” says Tom Small who, like his wife, is a former English professor. They now grow 40 species of native shrubs and 15 species of native trees, as well as sedges, ferns, grasses and wildflowers.

The Smalls were organizers of the Kalamazoo chapter of Wild Ones, a national non profit that promotes the use of native plants. He said they were inspired after reading “Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards” by the late Sara Stein (Houghton Mifflin, $14).

He recommends that people interested in birdscaping contact the local chapter of Wild Ones (www.for-wild.org) or a native plant nursery through the Michigan Native Plant Producers Association (www.mnppa.org).

Especially for those who live in urban areas, planting a few gray dogwoods, asters, goldenrods and viburnums can turn a yard into a bird magnet.

“In areas where it’s all cement and parking lots, every little patch of habitat can help. Every great native garden adds up,” Craves said.