That Bird Blog – Bird Care and History for Pet Birds
Along with providing your pets with a variety of nutritious foods, “bird conscious” gardening will ensure that you are visited by an assortment of interesting native birds and insects. Wild-caught insects are also a valuable food item for many cage birds, and may be easily collected with the Zoo Med Bug Napper.
Please see Part I of this article for general bird-gardening information.
Fruit Trees and Bushes
Trees and bushes can provide limbs for gnawing, leaves for shredding and tasty fruits, flowers and buds. The branches of those listed here are also useful as cage perches, and will provide your pet with a variety of grip widths and surfaces.
Canaries and other finches and most softbills will also enjoy poking though foliage for caterpillars, beetles and other small insects.
Nearly all of the fruits that we consume can be used as bird food. Those listed below grow well in temperate climates. If you live in a warm locale, you can include mango, banana, papaya and other tropical varieties as well.
Apple and Crab Apple
Fig
Apricot
Pear
Peach
Most berries, including North American natives (elderberry and juniper)
Flowers
Flowers and buds are relished by many birds – lorikeets and honey creepers will try to extract the nectar, and others will consume flowers outright, search among them for insects, or just enjoy tearing them up. Some hearty favorites include:
Dogwood
Magnolia
Dandelion
Gardenia
Nasturtium
Petunia
Begonia
Bougainvillea
Seeds, Grains and Grasses
Don’t forget your seed-eaters…in addition to nutritious seeds, the following provide leaves that make excellent foraging toys and nesting material:
Thistle
Canary Grass
Maize/Corn
Sunflower
Most Native Grasses
Some of my earliest bird-gardens sprang up quite accidentally – the result of bird seed that spilled while I was cleaning bird and small animal cages, and wild bird seed missed by visitors to my feeders. The seeds used in such foods are apparently quite hearty, as I gave the plants no care at all but had quite an assortment sprouting throughout the summer. Try planting some of our wild bird seed and see what happens.
Toxic Plants
A number of common household and garden plants are potentially toxic, and should not be fed to birds. Please see my article on Toxic Plants for further information.
Further Reading
You can learn more about gardening for pet and wild birds at the following informative blog:
http://ruralchatter.blogspot.com/2009/02/creat-bird-garden-plant-native-part-ii.html.
Orchard bee photo referenced from Wikipedia and originally posted by Artic.
Dogwood photo referenced from Wikipedia.