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To help backyard birds through the winter, do less. Leave the leaves or rake them under plantings. The tasty insects and spiders underneath will be food for the towhee and this Song Sparrow. Don’t deadhead. Pine Siskins and goldfinches love to snack on dead flowerheads. Make an insect hotel out of natural objects, flower pots, or other “found” items to create hidey holes for insects. They will become food for wrens and other birds.
BirdNote®
Leave the Leaves
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote.
[Eastern Towhee]
Some of the best ways to help backyard birds through the winter mean doing less, not more.
First, leave the leaves. Tasty insects and spiders live underneath. Backyard birds like the towhee and the Song Sparrow will pick and kick through leaves again and again.
[Song Sparrow]
Leave them where they’ve drifted, or rake them up under your plantings. Second, don’t deadhead the plants in your garden. Birds like Pine Siskins and goldfinches love to snack on dead flowerheads all winter long.
[Pine Siskins calling and Song Sparrow song]
Number Three: build an insect hotel. Okay, there’s some work involved in this one. But it’s a cool project for kids and adults to do together. Make a structure out of natural objects and “found” items to create little hidey holes for insects. Some of these cozy hotel guests will become food for wrens and other birds.
[Bewick’s Wren song with a bit of woodpecker drum at end]
It’s also a great way to repurpose old bricks and flower pots and bits of wood while creating your own sculpture.
So park the rake in the shed, and the clippers, too. The birds will thank you.
For BirdNote, I'm Michael Stein.
This episode is dedicated to former Board President Tom Livingston, whose leadership and support has helped BirdNote reach new heights.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Eastern Towhee [ML197018] and Pine Siskin [ML216764] recorded by Bob McGuire, Song Sparrow [ML70414851] recorded by Paul Marvin and Bewick's Wren [ML191106] recorded by Wilbur L Hershberger.
BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2017 BirdNote November 2019/2026 & October 2022
Narrator: Michael Stein
ID# garden-12-2017-11-09 garden-12
Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Michael Stein
NarratorSights & Sounds
