How to lure Birds to your Garden
Obviously, you will get the highest diversity of birds in your garden if you can provide for all of these groups. We will discuss each of the groups one by one.
Insect eaters
Insect-eating birds form a large group which includes thrushes, robins, warblers, shrikes, flycatchers, white-eyes, chats, barbets, woodpecker, hoopoes, woodhoopoes and more.
Your garden will attract more of these birds the more insects there are.
How to attract insects to your garden has already been discussed above.
It helps to have many flowers that attract bees and other pollinators.
Some of the trees and shrubs that fit this purpose are all Acacias, the coral tree (Erythrina lysistemon), tree fuchsia (Halleria lucida), weeping boerbean (Schotia brachypetala), buffalo thorn (Ziziphus mucronata), wild pear (Dombeya rotundifolia), Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) and wild honeysuckle (Turraea floribunda).
Other excellent flowering plants are the Aloes, especially as they flower in winter when there are few other resources for insects.
Some trees are yearly defoliated by hordes of caterpillars, which in turn are feasted on by cuckoos.
Examples are the rock alder (Canthium mundianum) and the wild peach (Kiggelaria africana), the host plant of Acraea caterpillars.
We already mentioned the importance of mulch as a rich resource for insect-eating birds. Another tip worth considering is to leave some dead branches on your trees to attract woodpeckers, woodhoopoes and barbets.
On Monday we will look at Seed Eaters and how to attract them.
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Artical by:
Dr Ed Stam, Ecologist, NZG
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