Who doesn't love watching birds in our gardens?!!! Many people put out bird seed feeders or sugar water feeders to attract birds. While feeders can provide supplemental food, the best course is to create natural, bird-friendly plant gardens that provide birds with native, healthy food.

There are three groups of plants that attract birds and each group draws different types of birds: Nectar plants, plants that provide seeds or nuts, and plants that produce berries or fruit. Many plants will provide more than one source of food, i.e., nectar in the spring and berries in autumn.

Here is a list of a few favorite native plants in each group and some of the birds they may attract.

Hummingbirds and Nectar

Nectar is a great source of energy since it contains water, antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, protein and about 15-25% sugars. While all flowering plants produce nectar, native plants generally provide a higher concentration of nectar in comparison to cultivated plants. Flowers with long blooming periods or repeat blooming will provide birds with a consistent food supply for extended periods.

Hummingbirds prefer tubular shaped flowers that fit the length of their beak, and are bright in color, particularly red. Native salvias (sages), penstemon, columbine, and honeysuckle all serve up nectar for hummingbirds.

• Sages (Salvias): There are about 18 sages native to California, with Hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) being one of them. The common name says it all! Fruity scented dark rose-lilac blossoms appear in March – May. It also produces autumn seeds that attract birds such as sparrows and finches.
• Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis). A small deciduous tree or shrub found in the foothills and mountains of California with distinctive shiny heart-shaped leaves. The showy bright pink or magenta flowers develop in the later winter and spring, growing in clusters all over the shrub, making the plant very colorful and noticeable in the landscape. Goldfinches and sparrows will feed on seeds produced in the fall.
• California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum). There's probably no better California native plant for attracting hummingbirds. A perennial plant, it blooms a bright profusion of scarlet flowers in spring and summer, and is often the only native California flowering plant blooming at the height of summer.

Birds That Eat Seeds

Birds that eat seeds are often the most common birds seen in gardens, which is why many people put up seed feeders. By not deadheading, the flowers will dry up, go to seed, thus providing for seed eaters. Native sunflowers, asters, and coneflowers all produce loads of tiny seeds that are finch and sparrow favorites.  

• Bush sunflower (Encelia californica), commonly referred to as "California bush sunflower.” With abundant bright yellow daises, it is beautiful in late winter through summer. Attracts goldfinches, sparrows, orioles, crows, Scrub jays, grosbeaks.
• California aster (Symphyotrichum chilense). A member of the Asteraceae family it is native to western North America. The summer blooming flowers come in blues, purples and yellow colors. It is also a host plant for the Northern Checkerspot, Field Crescent and Pearl Crescent butterflies.
• Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens), also known as Meadow Muhly and Deer Muhly, is a summer-growing, perennial bunchgrass whose seeds attracts woodpeckers, finches, grosbeaks, crows and jays.

Berry Plants are Important to Birds

The presence of winter berries has an important role of sustaining a number of bird species through the colder months. Some insect-eating birds will turn to berries as a supplement to their diets when insects become scarce. Berry plants attract birds such as California thrashers, Western bluebirds, American robins, Northern flickers, Nuttall's woodpeckers, Northern mockingbirds, California scrub jays, orioles, crows, and wrentits. Berries can also be magnets for winter visitors such as cedar waxwings, which travel in large flocks. These showy birds have been known to over-indulge on overripe berries that have started to ferment and become intoxicated, which causes them to fly erratically and crash into windows.

Many shrubs and small trees provide berries that ripen at different times, so providing a seasonal variety, such as cherries for birds during the breeding seasons of spring and summer, and holly in winter, helps sustain birds throughout the year.

• Golden Currant (Ribes aureum). A deciduous plant that blooms in late winter and spring with golden yellow flowers that attract hummingbirds. The ripe berries in autumn are amber yellow to black in color, are edible, and attract a wide range of birds. There are two main varieties: Ribes aureum var. aureum and Ribes var. gracillimum.
• Blue Elderberry (Sambucus Mexicana). Also known as Mexican elderberry, the berries from elderberries are one of the most important sources of food for birds in California. Native from Oregon to Baja all the way to western Texas, it has cream or yellow flowers in the spring and purple berries in the fall.
• Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia).  Toyon is a beautiful perennial chapparal shrub native throughout the western part of California and the Sierra foothills. It is also known by the common names Christmas berry and California holly from the bright red berries it produces during the winter months, which are produced in large quantities, maturing in the fall and persisting well into the winter. Note: the berries are toxic to humans in large amounts.
• California False Buckthorn (Frangula californica). This perennial, evergreen shrub is also known as Coffeeberry due to its berries containing seeds that resemble coffee beans. The shrub produces small, greenish white flowers in the summer, followed by dark berries that are sought after by birds.

By providing a variety of native plants that produce nectar, seeds and berries to attract different types of birds, you'll be providing a healthy haven for birds all year round, along with many other species of pollinators such as bees and butterflies!

Denise Godbout-Avant has been a UCCE Stanislaus County Master Gardener since 2020.

Resources

California Native Plant Society https://www.calscape.org/  and garden planner https://gardenplanner.calscape.org/

A list of plants that naturally attract California Birds to your Garden https://www.laspilitas.com/bird.htm

Audubon native plants database  https://www.audubon.org/native-plants