Creating Habitat For Backyard Birds by Dale Evva Gelfand

Author:Dale Evva Gelfand
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Published: 1999-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

Providing Shelter

Shelter — or cover — is another, equally important necessity of good bird habitat. It offers birds (and many other forms of backyard wildlife) protection during both waking and sleeping hours. And of course shelter is critically important during birds’ nesting and fledging times.

Good cover provides concealment from and impenetrability by predators, as well as refuge from the elements: rain, snow, sleet, wind, heat, and cold. When choosing your bird-habitat plants, make sure to include at least one good clump of evergreen trees and shrubs to provide year-round protective cover from both weather and predators. Excellent choices are pines, junipers, hollies, and live oaks, which all provide food as well as cover. You should also plant deciduous shrubs that offer effective summer nesting sites and shelter from predators.

An important rule: Good cover should be close to food and water. The more exposed birds are, the higher their mortality rate from predators. The favor you’re doing birds by providing them with feeders is in turn providing opportunists with a free lunch. Hawks learn very quickly where to set up shop for easy pickings, as do any neighborhood cats (or your own).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.