Audubon Society promotes online resource for attracting birds

With spring arriving earlier than usual and bird migration currently underway, the National Audubon Society is encouraging nature enthusiasts to grow bird-friendly native plants at home. Through Audubon’s Plants for Birds public online database, anyone nationwide can access a list of native plants that benefit their favorite local bird species, by just typing in their zip code.

"Native tree species are better for birds because they host many more caterpillars; native oaks support more than 550 kinds of butterflies and moths," said Tod Winston, Plants for Birds program associate at Audubon. "Non-native Ginkgo trees? Only five.”

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The website had a soft launch for members this past fall. Since then, the Audubon Society has increased the local listings resource, which provides information about local independent garden centers that sell native plants and birding clubs and organizations nearby, and updated the format, listing more native plants and local birds.

For more information on how to get listed on the local resources tab so people looking for native plants can find your garden center, contact nativeplants@audubon.org. For more, visit the Audubon Society's database page.

Image: Photo by Brooke N. Bates

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