Bird-Friendly Gardening: Guidance and Projects for Supporting Birds in Your Landscape

Bird-Friendly Gardening is the definitive guide to planting a wildlife-welcoming home landscape filled with a diversity of native plants that feed, shelter, and support birds.

*2025 GardenComm Silver Laurel Media Award Winner*

With hundreds of North American bird species facing population decline or at risk of extinction, right now is the perfect time to create a home-based habitat garden that offers birds the resources they need to safely feed, migrate, breed, and thrive.

Thankfully, making your outdoor space a secure and comfortable haven for many different bird species isn’t a Herculean task. It’s a matter of understanding the needs of our avian friends and how native plants, combined with purposeful garden design, can help meet those needs. And that’s exactly the know-how you’ll find here, outlined in a simple-to-follow, actionable format by author Jennifer McGuinness. 

Step beyond the seed-filled bird feeder and suet block, and learn how to further provide for birds. Some of the topics covered in the book include:
 

• How to design a bird-centered habitat garden in spaces large and small 
• Advice on providing fresh water year-round
• Understanding the connection between native plants and insects and the birds that rely on them
• How to design and plant a fruit garden, a bird seed garden, a runoff-absorbing rain garden, or even a container garden that nurtures birds
• Meet dozens of trees, shrubs, and other plants that support the insects almost all adult birds need to feed their young
• 18 step-by-step garden design projects and plant lists for creating a diversity of bird-friendly spaces
• Tips for preventing window strikes and cat kills
• Best practices for including bird feeders, nest boxes, and bird baths in your landscape

Whether your “spark bird” was a lightning-fast Ruby-throated Hummingbird, a brilliant Indigo Bunting, or a petite Hammond’s Flycatcher, it’s time to put out the welcome mat for birds in your home garden. YOU can make a significant impact on the lives of thousands of birds, whether they’re just passing through during migration or making a feather-lined summertime home for raising the next generation.

It’s time for gardeners from coast to coast to heed the call and welcome their flighty friends home with Bird-Friendly Gardening.