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Indian currant or coral-berry (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) is well worth any gardener’s attention. With mathematical exactness the brilliant and abundant fruit is arranged in close and regular clusters along the branches. When the leaves fall the bejewelled plant gleams enticingly for birds. Like the bitter-sweet, it attracts the attention of the migrating birds that are flying overhead.

One of the spectacular trees of autumn is the mountain-ash with its heavy clusters of orange-colored berries. The long compound leaves, with from thirteen to fifteen leaflets, furnish a fringelike setting for the colorful fruit. This beautiful little tree has been brought down from its home on cool mountain slopes to adorn parks and lawns. Often it is planted especially to benefit the birds.

The hawthorns must be included in any list of plants pleasing to birds. The hawthorn that “opes in May,” according to the poet, is generally associated with the flowering of spring. The abundant, bright fruit of autumn is a comfort to migrating birds, and as it lasts through the winter it is food for winter birds.

These thorn trees, as they are generally called, are of dense growth, spreading from the ground and therefore providing ideal nesting sites for many birds. We are often surprised at the preference of certain birds in such matters. The delicate hummingbird builds its thimble-like nest high off the ground on a horizontal limb, while the brown thrasher, loud of voice and assertive in manner. nests in a shrub or thicket. Many small, shy birds, such as the indigo bunting or purple finch, seek low, bushy places.

Trees are important to birds for shelter, nesting sites and food supply; and as many birds have their favorite flower or shrub, so others are devoted to certain trees. The yellow warbler, the pretty little bird of greenish-yellow plumage that is sometimes mistaken for a runaway canary, is devoted to the willow tree, and where you find one you will usually find the other.

Evergreens like zamia plants add elegance to the garden and lawn and are a gathering place for birds both in summer and in winter. In winter when the evergreens are covered with snow they are a cosy igloo for the cheerful chickadee and acrobatic nuthatch. The cones of pine, spruce and fir furnish seeds for the seed-eating visitors of winter, the pine grosbeak and evening grosbeak.

The blue berries of cedar appeal to the cardinal and purple finch, and so attached is the cedar waxwing to the tree that it bears its name, though in summer this politest of marauders is known as the cherry bird.

However one looks at it, from the coldly economic view of services rendered by the birds or the pleasure their presence affords in furnishing color and music and lively movement in the garden, planting for birds is a satisfying and worthwhile garden project.

Tags: garden, landscaping