Favorite Trees for Wild Birds

Conifers

• Conifers attract wild birds because they provide year-round shelter and nesting areas. They also produce fruits and seeds that birds can eat. The eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) attracts more than 50 bird species, according to the Audubon Society. The Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) is a good choice for people living in the West and will provide food for birds such as jays and turkeys. Spruces (Picea spp.) and firs (Abies spp.) are also good trees for providing nesting sites, shelter and seeds.

Summer-Fruiting Trees

• Trees that fruit in the summer are important for birds because they provide them with food during the breeding season. The American or red mulberry (Morus rubra), common serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) and American elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis) are among the best for providing summer fruits that birds love. Cherry and chokecherry trees (Prunus spp.) also provide summer fruit. These trees can attract thrushes, bluebirds, robins, thrashers, wrens and many other species of birds to your yard.

Autumn-Fruiting Trees

• In the fall, birds need food to build up their reserves to sustain them as they migrate south or get ready to endure the winter season. The southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) is often prized for its large white flowers, but more than 20 species of birds appreciate its fruit which ripens in the fall. The gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa) is an autumn-fruiting tree that attracts birds like the northern cardinal, downy woodpecker, northern flicker and eastern bluebird. The pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) and the flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) are also attractive to birds.

Winter-Bearing Trees

• Trees that hold on to their fruit in the winter are an essential food source for birds that remain through the winter as well as for migrating birds in the spring. The California wax myrtle (Myrica californica) is a small tree that attracts northern flickers, chestnut-backed chickadees, yellow-rumped warblers, tree swallows and towhees. Crabapples (Malus spp.) not only provide fall fruit, but winter-persistent varieties provide food for robins, bluebirds, thrushes, cardinals and waxwings through the winter and spring. Planting sumacs (Rhus typhina), hollies or winterberries (Ilex verticillata), snowberries (Symphoricarpos spp.) and eastern wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus) will help attract robins, waxwings, pine grosbeaks and mockingbirds.

Nut and Acorn Trees

• Nut and acorn trees provide food for birds such as titmice, jays, turkeys, woodpeckers and flickers. These trees also produce spring flowers that attract insects that birds enjoy eating and provide a nesting habitat. Trees that provide food include oaks (Quercus spp.), hickories (Carya spp.), chestnuts (Castanea spp.), walnuts (Juglans spp.) and buckeyes (Aesculus spp.).