See Your Garden Through the Eyes of Its Wildlife Visitors
Want to design for beneficial wildlife? Learn how to recognize cover, shelter and habitat for pollinators and songbirds
What you see when you look at your yard might be the beauty of a summer garden or the architectural interest of limbs bared by winter. Or you might see the dappled patterns of shade on a perennial bed or the clean lines of a newly mowed lawn. What the wildlife that use your yard see is very different: shelter from storms and extreme heat or cold, nest spots, places to eat and cover to protect them from predators.
Let’s explore the contrast between what we see and what your yard looks like through the eyes of birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. It may just change the way you approach your garden.
Let’s explore the contrast between what we see and what your yard looks like through the eyes of birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife. It may just change the way you approach your garden.
What we see. A pretty yellow sunflower head (Helianthus annuus).
What they see. Overlapping petals where this thumbnail-sized native green sweat bee — one of North America’s 4,000-plus species of native bees, most of which are pollinators — could take shelter during a summer rainstorm. The sunflower’s dark center absorbs solar radiation during the day and provides a warm place for small pollinators like native bees to sleep at night.
Shelter can be as small as a flower or even a grass stem. The more different kinds of plants your yard provides, especially native species that are familiar to our native wildlife, the more habitat for even the little ones like this iridescent green halictid bee.
What they see. Overlapping petals where this thumbnail-sized native green sweat bee — one of North America’s 4,000-plus species of native bees, most of which are pollinators — could take shelter during a summer rainstorm. The sunflower’s dark center absorbs solar radiation during the day and provides a warm place for small pollinators like native bees to sleep at night.
Shelter can be as small as a flower or even a grass stem. The more different kinds of plants your yard provides, especially native species that are familiar to our native wildlife, the more habitat for even the little ones like this iridescent green halictid bee.
What we see. An Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) with a crowded branching pattern that could use trimming to open up its lower canopy.
What they see. A dense canopy that intercepts snow and rain and offers a dry place to shelter during storms. This canopy also provides thermal cover, which protects wildlife from extremes of both hot summer sun and cold winter nights.
Prune trees and shrubs judiciously, making sure to leave enough foliage and branches to provide hiding and thermal cover and shelter for wildlife.
What they see. A dense canopy that intercepts snow and rain and offers a dry place to shelter during storms. This canopy also provides thermal cover, which protects wildlife from extremes of both hot summer sun and cold winter nights.
Prune trees and shrubs judiciously, making sure to leave enough foliage and branches to provide hiding and thermal cover and shelter for wildlife.
What we see. An untidy meadow, with shrubs, perennials and bunch grasses that didn’t get cut back in fall.
What they see. Shelter in the dense grass clumps, like the peachy-colored little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium); small bees and other insects seek shelter in the hollow grass culms and inside the pithy stalks of the Maximilian sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) and within the dried flower clusters of the rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa). There’s also food in the form of seeds remaining in the grass flower heads and the dried heads of the Maximilian sunflowers.
Too much tidiness can destroy habitat. Leaving up the stalks and seed heads of ornamental grasses and perennials over the winter provides cover, wintering habitat and food for small pollinators.
7 Reasons Not to ‘Clean Up’ Your Fall Garden
What they see. Shelter in the dense grass clumps, like the peachy-colored little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium); small bees and other insects seek shelter in the hollow grass culms and inside the pithy stalks of the Maximilian sunflowers (Helianthus maximiliani) and within the dried flower clusters of the rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa). There’s also food in the form of seeds remaining in the grass flower heads and the dried heads of the Maximilian sunflowers.
Too much tidiness can destroy habitat. Leaving up the stalks and seed heads of ornamental grasses and perennials over the winter provides cover, wintering habitat and food for small pollinators.
7 Reasons Not to ‘Clean Up’ Your Fall Garden
What we see. An ugly, dead tree trunk with peeling bark.
What they see. Valuable real estate for nesting and winter shelter, plus opportunities to feed on insects in the bark and trunk. The partly flaked bark provides crannies for roosting bats (natural pest insect control) and butterflies in summer. The natural holes from fallen branches shelter wintering chickadees and nuthatches, which crowd by the dozens in cavities on winter nights to share body heat. In summer, these cavities provide nest spots for woodpeckers, swallows, bluebirds and other hole-nesting birds.
Snags and stumps offer important habitat too. In fact, the loss of these natural “apartment houses” for diverse wildlife has led to drastically reduced populations of important insect-eating species, including bats, swallows, woodpeckers and bluebirds. Fewer insect predators, of course, means higher populations of those pest insects that cause problems for people and plants.
What they see. Valuable real estate for nesting and winter shelter, plus opportunities to feed on insects in the bark and trunk. The partly flaked bark provides crannies for roosting bats (natural pest insect control) and butterflies in summer. The natural holes from fallen branches shelter wintering chickadees and nuthatches, which crowd by the dozens in cavities on winter nights to share body heat. In summer, these cavities provide nest spots for woodpeckers, swallows, bluebirds and other hole-nesting birds.
Snags and stumps offer important habitat too. In fact, the loss of these natural “apartment houses” for diverse wildlife has led to drastically reduced populations of important insect-eating species, including bats, swallows, woodpeckers and bluebirds. Fewer insect predators, of course, means higher populations of those pest insects that cause problems for people and plants.
What we see. An original midcentury modern exterior light fixture, with a ribbed glass light diffuser under overhanging metal eaves.
What they see. Home. A mama American robin saw this light fixture as the ideal platform for her mud and grass nest. Even though the light fixture is right next to a heavily used garage side door and the house was under renovation with trades-folk coming and going all day long, she was determined to build there. When the homeowner removed the robin’s first attempt at a nest and put a brick atop the fixture to discourage her, the robin managed to topple the brick to the sidewalk below. She rebuilt her nest and successfully raised four young.
Nest habitat is not always where we prefer it. But not much stops a broody mama robin.
More
How to Design a Garden for Native Bees
Make Your Garden a Haven for Backyard Birds
What to Know About Starting Your First Native Plant Garden
What they see. Home. A mama American robin saw this light fixture as the ideal platform for her mud and grass nest. Even though the light fixture is right next to a heavily used garage side door and the house was under renovation with trades-folk coming and going all day long, she was determined to build there. When the homeowner removed the robin’s first attempt at a nest and put a brick atop the fixture to discourage her, the robin managed to topple the brick to the sidewalk below. She rebuilt her nest and successfully raised four young.
Nest habitat is not always where we prefer it. But not much stops a broody mama robin.
More
How to Design a Garden for Native Bees
Make Your Garden a Haven for Backyard Birds
What to Know About Starting Your First Native Plant Garden
What they see. An island of safety in a dangerous open expanse where smaller wildlife are visible and exposed to predators, whether fast-flying hawks (accipiters), owls or free-roaming cats.
Trees and shrubs provide cover, shelter and food for songbirds and pollinators. But one tree in a wide-open expanse of lawn or other short ground cover does not make a safe habitat on its own. Plant taller ornamental grasses, tall perennials or shrubs between isolated specimens to act as stepping stones to connect any islands of habitat.