ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080015
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN PAGE: LG-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
Feeding the birds doesn't necessarily mean dragging 50-pound sacks of seed home from the grocery store. One-time-only plantings can yield many seasons of food for these feathered creatures. Attracting a variety of birds to our yards and gardens can be as simple as planting several different kinds of food sources. The plantings can also add interest to the landscape.
Be patient - it may take a little time before the fly-by discover your restaurant. Then, you can count on them coming almost daily, particularly in times of bad weather.
Our feathered friends had an easy autumn and a tough winter. The late snows gave them more time to feast on the fruits and berries that appear in fall. The deep snows during the past few months made foraging difficult and food almost impossible to find without our help.
We need them as much as they need us. Birds' habitats and food sources are dwindling while bug populations are flourishing.
Their needs are simple - shelter, water and food. In return, they provide us with simple pleasures - beautiful songs and dots of bright colors in an otherwise sometimes drab landscape. As an additional benefit, they rid our gardens of unwanted insects - lots of insects.
Their menu includes berried shrubs, trees, vines, herbs, seeds, grains and flowers. Just as we do, they need fat and carbohydrates for energy, protein for building and maintaining their bodies and for successful reproduction, minerals, vitamins and calcium (to insure adequate shells for their eggs).
Migratory birds need sustenance on their long flights in the autumn and spring and the help of humans during the winter months. In spring and summer, as they birth and raise their young, the food we provide, whether by planting natural sources or by stocking feeders, is a welcome addition to their foraging.
Some favor tree branches, overgrown fields or underbrush for their homes and perches. With no more natural defenses than their small beaks and quick getaways, their need for the camouflage is great.
Bush berries and seeds from evergreens such as spruce and fir offer winter nourishment for black-capped chickadees.
Tall grasses provide doves with seeds. These birds build their nests in oaks and evergreens. Evergreens offer protection to chickadees and titmice.
Grape vines as well as fruit, flowering and evergreen trees such as apple, dogwood and cedar provide food and a nesting habitat for robins.
Sweetgum trees produce seeds, a goldfinch's primary food. Thistledown insulates their cup-shaped nests and the thistle seeds nourish their chicks.
Bluebirds will eat the fruits of serviceberry and blackberry bushes in winter. Thrushes find insects in open lawns and often seek cover in blooming dogwood trees.
Several varieties of flowering and fruiting shrubs that will not only attract birds but are also vigorous growers are cotoneaster, euonymus, firethorn, high-bush blueberry ( or any ``berry'' shrub), holly, Rosa rugosa, viburnum.
A red-belled woodpecker may hunt for insects and chisel a safe nesting cavity in an oak.
Members of the sparrow family (chipping, white-throated and song) are attracted to crabgrass, blackberry and bull thistle.
Warblers often nest in bayberry shrubs. Perched high in cedar trees, they survey the grass for insects.
Birds' favorite flowers include amaranths, bee balm, black-eyed Susan, calendula, California poppy, campanula, coneflower, coreopsis, cosmos, marigold, New England aster, sunflower and zinnia.
Sunflowers, with their huge seed heads, vary in height from 18 inches to 10 feet - and birds like them all.
Aim for a combination of evergreen and deciduous trees for the most natural habitat and include at least one fruit-bearing tree, such as crab apple, for a food source.
Plant ground covers, such as ajuga, English ivy, sweet woodruff and vinca minor, so they mingle with flowers, rather than stand on their own. Include some patches of lawn - certain birds, such as warblers and thrushes, scout such open areas for insects.
Some information for this story was provided by ``The Bird Feeder Book'' by Donald and Lillian Stokes and ``The Bird Garden" by Stephen W. Kress.
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. Kent Summers places feedersby CNBin hopes of luring birds to Woodpecker Ridge in Troutville.