Birds add a lot to our lives with their bright flashes of colour and morning song. It is hard to imagine living somewhere the smaller, shrub-living birds are not part of the environment, but sadly this is becoming the norm in many urban areas and large, cleared areas of farmland.
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Birds need to be considered as essential residents of any organic garden or farm. The robins, wrens, honeyeaters, pardalotes (pictured), willy wagtails, thornbills, flycatchers, warblers and tree-creepers are primarily insect eaters and do an enormous amount of pest control, particularly of aphids, scale, caterpillars and grasshoppers.
These insect eaters are mainly smaller, shrub-dwelling birds who need protection from their predators, including cats and hawks.
People who allow their cats free range in the garden will often claim they still have birds but nearly always they only have the larger tree dwelling birds like kookaburras, crows, magpies and currawongs. Fitting any cats with multiple, small bells, or a mirrored collar, helps to prevent decimation of the wildlife population, as does restricting their wandering.
To attract birds provide safe nesting sites, free from predators and with privacy. Dense plantings of native shrubs, in out-of-the-way corners of the garden will provide important nesting sites for smaller birds, and as a bonus, can be chosen to provide nectar to attract nectar feeding birds such as Honeyeaters.
Including prickly shrubs in the plantings gives added protection from cats. On farms designing a hedgerow of bird-attractant shrubs between cropping areas will provide a range of benefits. In an urban landscape nesting sites for birds that require hollow trees are few and far between. It can take 150 years for a tree to develop a hollow large enough to house owls, parrots, gliders, possums and small insect eating bats. Provision of nesting boxes by urban residents can meet an urgent need and help to maintain a rich diversity of wildlife.
Small, insectivorous bats are nocturnal feeders, and play an important role in the control of night flying insects, including mosquitoes. Sugar Gliders mainly eat insects, such as leaf-eating beetles, moths, grasshoppers and caterpillars, they also feed on sap-suckers that excrete honeydew, such as scale.
Water is an essential element in the landscape, whether it is a bird bath or a small pond. Providing a reliable source of water for birds allows them to nest in the garden. Bird baths should be placed close to a nearby refuge of densely foliaged shrubs, to allow easy escape from predators.
