Illustrations by Kelly Ballantyne; follow on IG @kcballantyne

The Chicago Area is Especially Important for Migrating Birds

For nearly half the year - in late March, April and May, and again in late August through early November - millions of beautiful birds make a difficult, long journey between their nesting grounds in the north and their wintering grounds in the southern states, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

Most of these birds’ populations have declined steeply in recent years, and they need our help.  They fly over empty farm fields and expanses of concrete and asphalt to the green spaces of Chicago’s yards, parks, preserves, and campuses. Over 100 different kinds of migratory birds will search any bit of landscaping - large or small - urban, rural or suburban - for food and shelter.

You can help by planting native trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers, providing food and shelter for many types of birds in Spring and Fall.

Native Plants Provide Ideal Food and Habitat for Native Birds

Native plants evolved alongside birds (and insects and animals), and provide ideal nutrition that is not provided by non-native species. Research by the entomologist Doug Tallamy has shown that native oak trees support over 500 species of caterpillars (butterfly and moth larvae) whereas ginkgos, a commonly planted landscape tree from Asia, host only 5 species of caterpillars. It takes more than 6,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees - so the choice for oaks over ginkos is clearly better for the birds. Read more from Audubon about Why Native Plants Matter.

Native Plant Gardening Basics

Planning a native garden is your first step in providing a welcoming habitat for birds. You can start small - even just a few native plants can help. Many gardeners intermix both native and non-native plants, as they gradually transition to a native habitat. Determine how much room you have, and the conditions - sunny or shady, dry or wet?

Here are the basics:

Structural diversity: include three or four different levels of plantings. Sites with a few tall and short trees, a dense shrubby area or two, plus sections of grasses and flowers will provide food and shelter for many different birds in all seasons.

Species diversity: Birds are looking for food every week of the year, and plants offer food at different times. A range of plant species can provide foods such as nectar, buds, tiny insects, berries and seeds across the seasons.

Avoid fastidious “clean-up”. Birds eat many of the seeds on native plants throughout the year. Also, birds thrive on the many insects that live and over-winter in leaf piles, stalks, and other dead vegetation. Dried leaves and sticks can be raked over garden beds in fall, serving as mulch against cold temperatures, and preserving moisture in the spring until insects, bees and butterflies emerge in May.

Note:  Many garden centers sell cultivars of natives, which may not attract wildlife as well as natives. A native plant nursery is the best place to get the kinds of local native wildflowers that will do the best job of attracting friendly insects and the birds that want to feed on them.

Recommendations by Season

Plantings for Spring Migrants

The big movement of migrants begins in mid-April and continues through the end of May. Food sources vary by bird - some prefer insects, spiders and worms such as those found on tender, emerging leaves - caterpillars, scale insects, mites. Some birds, such as warblers, eat flying insects that are attracted to blooming flowers, especially on trees and shrubs. Others catch their meals on the wing; still others dig in the ground, or under bark for eggs and grubs. Other birds prefer nectar or sap.

Recommended trees and shrubs to attract spring migrants

• Oaks - especially bur oaks - and elms are used the most by our birds.  Their tender leaves are emerging just as the big wave of migrants comes through in early May.  

• Hawthorn, Ohio buckeye, crabapple, cherry - cultivars of cherries that flower between May 3 and 15  attract hordes of nectar drinking migrants such as orioles, and Cape May warblers, and put on such a show that you might want to consider one, even though they are not native.   

• Hickories (such as bitternut), hackberry, honey locust, crabapple, prairie willow and pussy willow are also liked by many birds.

• Sugar maple and birch are favorite trees for sap suckers like woodpeckers. The yellow-bellied sapsucker migrates through in April and drills  holes in trees for sap.  Some birds that come north after the sapsucker such as the hummingbird and the red-breasted nuthatch will visit these little wells to drink sap.

• Elm, river birch, hop hornbeam and fruit trees attract finches, grosbeaks and sparrows, who enjoy eating buds in the spring.

Flowers for spring migrants

• Plant wild columbine, penstemon, paintbrush, Virginia bluebell, fire pink, woodland phlox in large groupings to best attract migrating hummingbirds who feed on their nectar when they migrate through in May.

Open compost heaps and brush piles

• Avoid clean-up and “dead-heading” until late May, as many birds will eat last fall’s seeds during migration, including finches and native sparrows.
  

Plantings for Fall Migrants

Fall migration begins in late August and continues through late November. Earlier migrants generally prefer insects. They search in trees, and when trees begin to drop their leaves flocks of warblers will shift to grassy areas such as prairies and savannas which still harbor insects. Berries and seeds are the bigger food source as the weather turns cooler, attracting thrushes, sparrows and others And hummingbirds are still looking for nectar until mid-October, or later for some possible vagrants.

Recommended trees and shrubs to attract fall migrants

• All of the trees recommended in Spring

• Viburnums: nannyberry, maple-leaved, blackhaw. NB: Arrowwood is very susceptible to viburnum beetle, a recent arrival

• Elderberry

• Virginia creeper, wild grape (both are difficult to control)

• Spicebush

• Chokeberry

• Winterberry – needs acid soils

• Alternate-leaved dogwood

• Northern mountain ash

• Ninebark

Grasses for fall migrants and wintering birds

• Full sun: Little bluestem, prairie dropseed, sideoats grama, porcupine grass, others

• Shade: bottlebrush grass, wild ryes, woodland brome, others

Flowers for fall migrants

• Full sun: Illinois Rose (for rosehips), native prairie asters, many goldenrods, coneflowers, sunflowers, blazing stars, prairie dock, compass plant, rosinweed, spurge, vervain, black-eyed susans, hyssop, Culvers’s root, Pokeweed (difficult to control), others

• Shade: native woodland asters, goldenrods, sunflowers, joe pye weed, cup plants (difficult to control), brown-eyed susan,  Solomon’s seal and baneberry. Orange jewelweed is a great favorite of hummingbirds, but can grow aggressively; Blazing star, lobelia and turtlehead are also favored.

Year Round

Open compost heaps and brush piles

• As in Spring, avoid clean-up and “dead-heading” - pile up leaves and stems as mulch in your beds.

• Leaf and brush piles, especially under trees and shrubs are great places for insect-loving birds to explore, such as towhees, woodcocks and fox sparrows.

Other Resources

West Cook Wild Ones - Getting Started with Native Gardening