Feeding Backyard Birds Has Many Benefits
When it comes to feeding backyard birds there are many benefits beyond the sheer enjoyment of bird watching. These benefits include insect control, weed control, flower pollination, education, interacting with nature, and it can even increase the value of your home.
As more and more land becomes developed, natural habitats for wildlife are destroyed. By feeding and creating a native habitat for backyard birds, it aids in replacing food sources and shelters that have disappeared. Further, adding native plants to your gardens and landscape not only benefits the birds and other native wildlife, it also can increase the value of your home. By maintaining a great landscape, you achieve curb appeal, which is a fantastic investment! Some great native plants beneficial to birds include flowering dogwood, witch hazel, white pines, maple trees, oak trees, serviceberry, winterberry, spicebush, barberry, elderberry, echinacea, and viburnum.
With the increasing amount of insects, birds play an important role in our ecosystem and keep insect populations under control. By attracting birds to your backyard, these feathered friends can reduce certain insect populations up to 98%, making for great insect control. Along with insects, many birds eat huge amounts of seeds. By attracting birds to your backyard, it will also attract them to natural food sources, like weeds, that are unwanted in your landscape.
Not only will birds help with the weed control of your landscape by eating seeds, but wild birds also assist with flower pollination to further benefit your gardens. Further, by observing birds it creates an education experience, which is great for all ages. There are over 10,000 different species of birds in the world, and the United States along is home to about 900 different species.
Without the help of native birds, our gardens would easily be overrun with weeds and insect populations would plague our ecosytem and way of life. For those two reasons alone, our backyard feathered friends are definitely something to keep around. Yes, they have many natural food sources, but constant development has greatly depleted those sources. So remember, by adding a bird house, bird feeder, or native plants to your property, you help the native birds and our ecosystem a little at a time, in addition to gaining all the benefits that native birds bring to you!
Below are bird varieties often found in local backyards. Stop in our store to find out which bird feed or bird house is perfect for attracting your favorite bird! Froehlich’s Farm has a great selection of Cole’s Wild Bird Food, Lyric Wild Bird Food, Droll Yankee Feeders, Duncraft Bird Feeders & Houses and many other great bird food and bird accessory items.
