Christmas for the Birds

Living Christmas Trees

Slow-growing Colorado spruce trees can be used for 3 to 5 years before they need to be planted. Water them every other day while indoors and put them outside after a week or ten days. Spray for peach leaf curl with copper sulfate, as peach and nectarine trees may suffer from this fungus disease without a protective spray.

Attracting Birds to Your Garden

Watching birds feeding, bathing, and playing in your backyard is a joy and serves an important purpose by reducing plant damage from insect pests. You can attract birds to your yard with bird feeders, bird houses, and bird baths.

• Cylindrical plastic feeders: Fill them with a good birdseed mix to attract nuthatches, chickadees, juncos, rufous-sided towhees, and sparrows.
• Window feeders: These stick to the window with suction cups, allowing close-up viewing, especially nice during bad weather.
• Niger seed (thistle) feeders: Tubular plastic feeders with small holes for thistle seed, popular with goldfinches.
• Feeding tables: Attract larger birds like robins, finches, and evening grosbeaks that prefer dining together.
• Hummingbird feeders: Filled with sugar solutions to supplement their diet of flower nectar; Anna’s Hummingbird visits year-round.
• Oriole feeders: Bright orange feeders that attract colorful orioles to the garden.

Birdbaths

Birdbaths attract birds year-round for drinking and bathing. Concrete birdbaths are stable and decorative, while hanging birdbaths may work best in some locations. Site your birdbath near trees or bushes so birds can retreat to dry off and preen safely.

Bird Houses

Nesting boxes, or "bird houses," provide a safe place for birds to raise their young. The size and type of the nest box and its entrance determine which birds use it. Specialty boxes are available at stores that handle bird supplies.