The importance of attracting birds to our urban and suburban landscapes is often overlooked. Birds play a vital role in our sensitive eco-systems not to mention the beauty and pleasure derived from watching and listening to them in our gardens. Planting a garden or landscape that will attract birds to your yard is as simple as providing them with food, water, shelter and nesting spaces. Some birds eat berries and fruit, some eat nuts, some eat seeds, and some eat insects. Be sure not to use insecticides in your bird habitat, as they will destroy an important food source for the birds. The following lists include Florida native trees and shrubs known to attract a variety of birds to Florida landscapes. Most of these plants are growing in Riverland’s demonstration gardens and are available for purchase.
Trees:
Fruit trees: Cherry, Peach, Plum
Fiddlewood: berries
Gumbo Limbo: red fruit eaten by mockingbirds, warblers and others use the canopy
Hollies: provide berries (get female plant)
Live Oak: acorns, great for shelter and nests
Magnolia: good cover for songbirds, red fruit eaten by mockingbirds
Pigeon plum: fruit
Red Maple: winged seeds eaten by some birds
Seagrape: fruit
Slash Pine: seeds
Stoppers, esp. Simpson’s Stopper: berries
Shrubs:
Beautyberry
Bird Pepper
Blackberry
Cocoplum
Coffee (bahama, wild)
Coral Bean: attracts hummingbirds
Elderberry
Firebush
Marlberry
Myrsine
Necklace Pod
Wax Myrtle
Palms:
Florida Royal
Sabal
Saw Palmetto
Silver Palm; all provide berries
Sabal palm “threads” are used to build nests