Turn Your Yard Into a Migrating Bird's Favorite Pit Stop – Add These 4 Elements to Your Garden to Help Them on Their Journey

Wouldn’t it be nice if all it took to lure migrating birds into a stop-over in your backyard was a welcome sign? Well, in reality, that is all it takes, but it has to be a welcome sign written in a language our feathered friends can understand.

So how do you flag down and help the birds heading south for the winter? Fall bird migration is the perfect time to lay down the welcome mat and turn your garden into a favorite bird pit stop. All it takes is adding a few critical elements that will aid these birds in their long journey south.

I’ll share my top tips to turn your yard into a migratory bird’s new favorite pit stop. Just making a few simple changes to your landscape can help birds survive and safely reach their southern destination for winter. Here’s what to do now before the migration season begins.

Why Supporting Migratory Birds Is So Important

Migratory birds never had it easy, with a long and tiring flight north in spring mandating a reverse flight that’s equally long in fall. This includes many colorful songbirds like orioles, tree swallows, red-eyed vireos, scarlet tanagers, yellow-rumped warblers and thrushes.

But these beautiful species are declining dramatically, causing all of us bird-lovers to worry. Yes, much of the problem is due to losses of habitat and breeding grounds from urban spread. But these migratory birds have also suffered from a significant loss of rest stops along their migration routes.

As parks and wild lands get eaten up by human activities, the migrating birds’ customary stopover areas are reduced. These have been important resources for the birds, providing them with safe places to stop, rest, and refuel in their long voyage to a distant destination. These vital wildlife habitats are shrinking, but you can help reverse this problem by adding just a handful of elements to your garden now before bird migration begins.

Turn Your Yard Into a Bird Migration Pit Stop

The good news is you don’t have to have thousands of acres or millions of dollars to help. By turning your landscape into a high-quality stopover area, each of us can join the fight to save the migrators and help keep them alive. Think high-energy food, clean water, and safety. Here are the critical elements you need to get started on creating an appealing pit stop.

1. Provide High-Energy Food

I sometimes head out to watch the San Francisco Marathon or Bay-to-Breakers race, cheering on the regular people who are courageous enough to run the extra miles. Their friends and supporters stand on the sidelines along the way handing out high carb snacks to keep the runners fueled, like raisins, dates, bananas, and jelly beans.

You can be that kind of loyal supporter to your migrating bird population, too. Put energy-packed food in your bird feeders, like black-oil sunflower seeds, niger seeds, and millet blends. Add high-energy suet cakes, which you can get from Chewy, to provide protein and fat. These are the options tired birds will appreciate most.

2. Grow Native Fruits & Berries

Many different types of fruits and berries ripen in fall, and these natural snacks can attract even more passing birds than your feeders. Provide a variety of fruit trees and bushes like blackberries, beautyberries, sassafras, spicebush, dogwood berries, wild grapes, and elderberries as well as apples. Birds can eat the fruit off the tree or fruit that has fallen to the ground.

Remember, even if the bird doesn’t want to eat your particular fruit, fallen fruit attracts bugs and bugs make wonderful meals for birds. Don’t forget about cedar and juniper trees that produce berries birds will devour. Then there’s holly berries that mature in fall and bright red hawthorn fruit that ripens in late summer. These berries can remain on branches well into winter for the latest birds on the migration path.

You can find lots of native fruit trees, shrubs, and plants for sale from Nature Hills Nursery to grow in your garden for birds.

3. Offer Fresh Water

All living creatures need water. If there was neither food nor water, your lifespan drops to a maximum of three days. Think of the migrating birds!

Water sources are critical life support elements for migrating birds. Flying long distances dehydrated birds quickly. Without hydration, the birds simply cannot make it through the arduous journey.

They need to be able to fill up on water quickly after they descend from the sky to rest. Plus, they use water to bathe and clean their feathers, which are essential for aerodynamic flight.

Yet wetlands and marshes are being sacrificed to urban spread and rivers are being rerouted or polluted. Adding a reliable water source for birds to your backyard will go a long way toward creating the pit stop your feathered friends are dreaming of.

Use a shallow bird bath and maintain it well. Clean your bird bath by picking out fallen leaves and debris every day, rinse out the muck, and fill it up with fresh water every few days. You can find tons of beautiful bird baths that suit a variety of garden styles from the Home Depot.

4. Create a Safe Landing Spot

What are the big dangers for birds when they stop in a backyard? Assuming you’ve followed the suggestions above, they won’t have to worry about dying from hunger or dehydration. But look out for the windows! Attach stickers or make a big X out of brightly colored tape to keep windows visible to flying birds.

Plus, keep kitties indoors. A cat outdoors will sport with birds – it’s in their nature. Free-ranging domestic cats take out some 1.4 to 3.7 billion birds each year in this country. That’s one heck of a threat to the wild bird population. Protect the exhausted visiting migrating birds by keeping house cats away from your garden.