by Cammie Donaldson and Deven Higginbotham | Florida Native Plant Society
Do you want to attract birds and butterflies to your yard?
Wildlife needs food, water and cover, and can only live where these needs are met. Florida’s plants and animals, from bobcats and deer to the tiniest insects, have co-evolved over thousands of years, resulting in a complex and wondrous web of interdependence. An ideal landscape uses native plants to provide a year-round food supply of berries, fruit, seeds and nuts.
Water is essential for wildlife, and your water source can be as elaborate as a pond with a waterfall or as simple as a puddle.
Cover needs to be provided for wildlife to breed, raise their young, hide from predators, sleep and feed.
Many native plants that provide food also provide cover. Dense evergreen trees or shrubs, such as yaupon holly or Simpson stoppers, or thorny shrubs and vines, such as blackberries or Walter’s viburnum, are perfect cover, as well as a food supply for a variety of wildlife.
Dead trees and brush piles also provide cover. Many animals, such as owls, require a cavity in a dead tree (snag) for nesting. If possible, leave a dead tree or two for the blue birds and woodpeckers, as well.
Only humans make “waste.” Mother nature recycles everything. All of the yard “trash” that people throw away can be used by some animal somewhere in the food chain.
Create brush piles with fallen tree limbs and use fallen leaves and grass clippings to create compost or mulch. Leave stumps and fallen logs for cover and foraging areas. Not only do they attract insects that provide food for nesting birds, but they also attract lizards and frogs that feed the hawks and owls.
Do you want to attract hummingbirds?
Didn’t know they existed in Florida? Plant shrubs and vines with long, tubular red flowers like the firebush, red salvia or the coral honeysuckle. You’ll attract butterflies as well.
MORE TIPS:
Diversify. Plant a variety of native species. Different plants, flowers and fruit drop
their leaves in different seasons. Plan on a full menu and color palette of plants for
every season. Even a small landscape can include dozens of species of plants.
Cater to every taste. Most native plants listed as “wildlife attracting” have fruits or nectar eaten by birds and butterflies. However, insect-eating birds need plants that attract insects. Tiny flowers that don’t attract us often attract insects (and the birds that eat them).
Feed the babies. Nesting birds must feed their young insects, and lots of them. The average hatchling requires 4,300 insects.
Feed the Larvae. To have adult butterflies, the species-specific larval food plants need to be available. Larval food plants can be denuded by hungry caterpillars. Relax and enjoy the fact that you’re feeding baby butterflies. Your plants will grow back. Remember, they’re naturally adapted to this abuse.
Go organic. Opt for slow release, natural/organic source fertilizers, applied only when absolutely necessary. Feed your plants with leaf litter and kitchen compost, and never use pesticides that can kill the nestlings and butterfly larvae you are trying to attract.
Spare the weed. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “A weed is a plant whose virtues have yet to be discovered.” Leaving some native “weeds” in your garden, such as Spanish needles, helps ensure that there is always something in bloom for butterflies to nectar on. Many “weedy” plants are also butterfly larval foods.
Dress the yard in layers. Include big trees, small trees, big shrubs, small shrubs, wildflowers, vines, and bunchgrasses in your landscape design. By providing vegetation at every level, you’ll support animals that forage and nest on the ground, a few feet up, or high up in the air. Reduce your turf areas which don’t provide habitat and encourage pesticide use.
Keep it Native. By planting Florida native plants you are supplying the wildlife with the food, shelter and nesting habitat they are seeking. Join the Suncoast chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society at SunCoastNPS.org. We meet every third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m., at the Seffner Extension Service office, 5339 County Road 579, Seffner. You can also find out more about Florida native plants at fnps.org.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“Gardening for Florida’s Butterflies” by Pamela F. Traas, Great Outdoors Publishing, 1999.
“Bringing Nature Home” by Douglas W. Tallamy, 2009.
“Planting a Refuge for Wildlife” Wildlife Foundation of Florida and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 2013. Available free with membership from the Suncoast Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society.