Birdscaping Your Garden: A Practical Guide to Backyard Birds and the Plants That Attract Them

I love this book! It was written with a thorough grasp of the scientific aspects of matching your plants to the birds you want to attract, and creating mini-habitats where birds will feel welcome and secure. But this is obviously a labor of love too. The book is organized so that you can look up plants and birds separately, but it also helps you to understand how they relate to each other. Information about growing zones is included for each plant, so you can easily chose species suitable for your location. The line illustrations of birds are excellent-very artistic and spirited, and clear enough to make it easy to identify the birds in real life. One pleasant surprise was how easy it change my boring backyard in an older suburb into a haven for many species of birds. A lot of the plants mentioned in the book were already there, including some I had planned to remove until I read this book. I gradually added many more bird-friendly plants, including a prairie garden which finches seem to love. The result was almost magical-the more things I planted, the more birds showed up! Another bonus was that if you have enough plants that birds like, you can get rid of conventional bird feeders-just give them a natural supply of food, and a birdbath or other water source, and you will be amazed at how many bird species you will see-all in your own back (or front) yard!

A fabulous book for beginning birders, Birdscaping your Garden acts as an all-purpose guide to identification, habitat, and feeding habits. Identification is aided by a short description as well as a black and white sketch and a full-color photo. Each two-page spread discusses one bird with details including migration and winter range, breeding range and behavior, nesting, and a short list of plants to use for bird food. The feeding guide is garden and plant focused (rather than the typical hanging birdfeeder type focus) with the idea of using native plantings to attract and feed birds. Purchased seed options are rarely mentioned. As organized and helpful as the individual page layouts are, the overall organization of the book is lacking. The reader is forced to browse through all 64 birds in the directory section to find what is being sought since the birds are not listed in any particular order. The book's lack of regional focus is also limiting and reduces the number of relevant entries to about 30 if you live in New Jersey, for example. The final section of the book is a plant directory which is organized alphabetically by scientific name. The section includes photos and general cultural guidelines for plants that will shelter and feed the birds previously discussed. A list of "Birds Attracted" within the individual plant descriptions is a nice cross-reference with the bird directory section.The dichotomy of the book should not put you off - it is clearly written and useful despite its overall lack of organization. There is no doubt it is valuable for creating a native, bird-friendly garden.

I first found this book at our local library and when I went to photocopy "a few pages" I realized I was about the copy the whole book so I decided to just buy the book for myself. It's terrific! It goes through all sorts of species of bushes and trees, indicates what type of wildlife is attracted to it, how they use it, etc. It has good pictures too. A real must have for the backyard gardener who wants to have some wildlife in their life. Highly highly recommended