Trees for backyard birds..?

[Griggs]

I've got a backyard with nothing but sod. I'd like to start creating a backyard setting for birds. I'd like to start with just one tree. Is there a certain tree that I should plant first? Thanks!

[Steve Foss]

Crabapples or mountain ash are great standards. Mountain ash won't flower until they are eight years old if memory serves, while crabapples will flower and fruit before that.

Either of these will attract blossom eaters like cedar waxwings and fruit eaters like robins, grosbeaks and cedar and bohemian waxwings.

If you opt for a crabapple, I'd ask the nursery for a variety that flowers/fruits profusely, since you're after bird food. Some are heavier bearers than others. Also, both species are susceptible to frost cracking in winter, which happens to trees with southern exposures when bright daytime sun warms (expands) the bark and harsh nighttime temps cool (contract) it. The resulting cracks can kill a young (or even a middle aged) tree. The tougher the bark, the less susceptible a tree is to this condition. Crabs, apples and mountain ash are smooth-barked trees, so they are vulnerable.

You get around that by spraying white latex paint on south/southwest part of the trunk and main branches, or by using the tree wrap you can get at nurseries, or by painting black corrugated drain tile white, slitting it down the middle and putting it around the trunk.

I've always favored the latex spraypaint myself, but any of these methods will work.

I like the Hopa crab a lot, and planted many of them when I ran a greenhouse/landscape operation. Just planted one two years ago at our current house ($30 tree with 1-inch-diameter trunk in 5-gallon pot), and already it's got 200 apples. After 20 years, a Hopa or similarly profuse crab will produce thousands of apples, and that's a lot of food. I prefer them over mountain ash because you can actually use them to make jams or jellies if you like, whereas mountain ash taste like crud unless you are a bird. Not to mention the crabapple blossoms in May are a sight to behold, before the waxwings get some of them.

For you second tree, if you choose a crab for your first, you can plant a regular apple tree. Fun fruit for you, and the bees will cross pollinate the apple for you. Many crabapple varieties are self-pollinating, while many apple varieties need cross pollination to bear fruit.

That's just my opinion.

If you are really in it for the long haul and have deep soils, think in terms of shelling out $200 or $300 for a ball-and-burlap white or red oak with a 2-inch or larger trunk. You'll like it pretty good. You children will like it a LOT, and an oak can provide many things to many birds, squirrels, deer and humans.

Really, there's a long and useful list of trees, shrubs and perennials that are great for birds and wildlife. Very cool that you have a blank slate to start with. We had a blank slate in our yard here in Ely, essentially, but we are on top of bedrock, with shallow soils full of gravel and Ely greenstone, so other than raised beds were are very limited in what we can plant that will thrive. Plus, we're in hardiness Zone 3, where you are in Zone 4 and not far north of Zone 5.

Now is a great time to plant a tree, as they are dormant. And I'm just assuming since you asked that you are not tree savvy. If you are, forgive me, but I'd recommend you consult your local nursery on the planting method. You can sure wait for spring, too, because that's an excellent time to plant trees. Getting to know your best local nursery and its folks will be like coining money over time, because the best of them really know their onions, and they should be willing to spend time with you to help you make the best choice and use the best husbandry techniques to give that tree the greatest chance to thrive.

You can especially bend their ears by the time November rolls around, since the fall planting season is usually over by then and they tend to have a bit more time to chat.

[MN Shutterbug]

Once you have the fruit bearing trees, it probably wouldn't hurt to add an evergreen to the mix. The evergreen would provide protection from predators such as Coopers and Sharp-shinned hawks.

I have very limited knowledge regarding this subject, but I do read Birds & Blooms.

[Griggs]

Thanks for all of the info! I am a tree newbie so I have some follow up questions.

1. I do have a southern exposure and there aren't many trees in our neighborhood so there will be a lot of direct sunlight. Do you still suggest a crabapple tree?

2. Will they make a big mess in the backyard?

I didn't know now was a good time to plant, if thats the case I will probably run out and do it this week while I still can. Thanks again for the info

[Steve Foss]

Quote:

1. I do have a southern exposure and there aren't many trees in our neighborhood so there will be a lot of direct sunlight. Do you still suggest a crabapple tree?

2. Will they make a big mess in the backyard?

1. Yes I do. Just take the precautions I mentioned and you'll be fine.

2. Yes, once it gets to be a mature tree and has too many apples for all the birds/beasts/humans, but that'll be many years away.

[Griggs]

Quote:

1. I do have a southern exposure and there aren't many trees in our neighborhood so there will be a lot of direct sunlight. Do you still suggest a crabapple tree?

2. Will they make a big mess in the backyard?

1. Yes I do. Just take the precautions I mentioned and you'll be fine.

2. Yes, once it gets to be a mature tree and has too many apples for all the birds/beasts/humans, but that'll be many years away.

Hmmm... I'll have to think about that since I have a pretty small yard and I have to think about resell value. Do you have any other tree suggestions?

[Steve Foss]

A crabapple will enhance resale value. Gorgeous blossoms in May, nice shape and foliage, fruit for fall. Just rake up any fruit that doesn't get eaten and falls to the ground.

[JayinMN]

Crab apples are great, and I would recommend one too. There are different types and if you pick a variety with smaller berries they will hang onto the tree until the birds eat them. Some of the larger variates will drop off the trees more easily.

Another suggestion would be a Canada Red Chokecherry. They get 20-30 feet tall. The leaves start out green in the spring and then turn purple by summer time. They also bloom in the spring and have sprigs of white flowers that develop into berries the birds will eat. The berries do not litter the ground and mine was a warbler magnet this fall. They are extremely hardy too.

[Steve Foss]

Good thoughts, Jason. It's been so many years since I had a greenhouse and did landscaping that I'm no longer up on which varieties of crab are small-fruited and late maturing, but the nursery will be able to answer that. The Hopa variety trees I've planted, including the one in our yard, don't tend to drop their fruit before the birds get them. There are other varieties that mature later and are smaller. I just don't know what they are.

I'll second the Canada Red. When I was planting them, they were called Canada red cherry. It's a cultivated variety of the chokecherry, not a wild chokecherry, and it fruits more profusely than the wild version without losing any of the wild one's hardiness. It's hard to find weather that will kill this tree. It's not prone to frost cracking like the crabapples and mountain ash, either.

The only drawback is that the roots tend to send up a lot of suckers when the tree matures. These can be pruned out and tossed as they come up.

One way or another, most trees that will feed berries/fruit to birds require some level of upkeep from the homeowner.

[half-dutch]

Check local codes about what trees are prohibited in your community. Those can sometimes provide surprises.

A tree of any size will make growing grass difficult in its shade. If you are proud of a thick rich lawn, better to plan border shrubs for cover and fruit. In my neighborhood both big and small lots are 40'; so a large tree can eventually cover into both neighbors' lot space, check with them, especially if the ones north have special plants that need full sun, which any tree may interfere. It pays to match the trees final size to the width of your lot, it makes for less neighbor trouble. I also have power and phone lines coming off the alley which makes it a bit more dicey about clear overhead. Such utilities very often have the right to come in and trim pretty much how they want and when they want. Also check about underground wiring and sewers. Some very nice trees have invasive roots. If you go B&B, which is really the way to go, you will need to have them come out and check for underground wiring and pipes anyway. Unless you have a ball cart or can get one and know what you are doing, it is probably best to let the nursery do the planting, too.

Don't be in a hurry. A tree is planted for decades and some of them for a lot longer than that. Sooner or later someone with different orientations will have to care for the tree; so think ahead a bit. There aint no such thing as a no maintenance plant, not tree, not shrub, not herby or woody.

Personally in your shoes and if I had the space, I would anchor the backyard with a white or a bur oak. Train it to a high main scaffold (the higher you set the scaffold the more head room you will have to mess around under the eventual tree and the less likely neighborhood kids will get into it to fall out, break bones and sue your home owners insurance) and then I would put in an understory of fruiting shrubs, and shade tolerant ground covers under a good heavy mulch with a solid barrier between the mulched shade and what remains of the lawn. The higher the scaffold the less dense the shade and the more you can grow under it too.

One other thing check with the agent for you home owner's policy about any restrictions on limb damage to your house, garage, or neighbors properties. Insurance companies may or may not care, it is getting next to impossible to predict how some of them will jump these days, except that they will all jump for more money.

[mixxedbagg]

What are you surrounded by....fields? Development? Wooded areas? That will make a difference on what birds you will likely attract and what trees are best.

One tree that might surprise you is the good old paper birch. If there are some woods around, birch really draw gleaners like warblers and vireos. But even if the area is open, you can expect the catkins to draw in finches like Common Redpolls and Pine Siskins in the winter.

[Griggs]

Thanks for all of the info everybody! With the snow and some indecision I've decided to wait until spring to get the tree. So that gives me lots of time to research.

I live in a new development where there aren't any mature trees around. About a mile away there is some pretty good wooded areas by the Shakopee high school. Other than that, we have some older neighborhoods across the highway and farmlands the other direction.

I put up a couple of bird feeders in the front yard a couple of days ago, still awaiting that first bird =) We only have one tree in the front yard, its about 10' tall. I'm not too optimistic about getting many birds there, but we'll see.

[panthrcat]

wow you just gotta love the help one gets around here... I haven't had a chance to read it all, but later on tonight I will,, I'm at work again,, this message board is the place!!!

[delcecchi]

My experience is that paper birch doesn't make it planted in a yard. Sooner or later the bronze birch borers get them.

[delcecchi]

My daughter lives in an area of St Paul without many trees in the immediate area. Last winter we put up a feeder on the rail of her deck and had birds within a day. Nearest trees probably 200 yds away.

[Griggs]

Still waiting on my first bird...

[glenn57]

My experience is that paper birch doesn't make it planted in a yard. Sooner or later the bronze birch borers get them.

i've had abirch in my front yard for 25 years. please note i did not post this to be combative! i love birch trees but they are a tad messy. a key to birch is planting a cluster. if you plant trees for birds you definitly need a pine or two, they love the cover. and birds love to nest in them. especilly morning doves.

[Steve Foss]

Birch borers are very tough on the birches both in the Bemidji and Ely/Babbitt areas right now. We're losing the white birch in our Ely yard, and all the birches on the family lake place, as well as around the lake itself near Bemidji, are on the way out.

Eventually I suspect the borers will reach a point where they'll fade away once their food supply is dead, after which the birches will recover from seed and start the long cycle all over again.

When I was in the tree business lo these 20 years ago, birch borers in N.D. were wreaking havoc on the birches there, and I removed a whole lot of them.

It does pay to be aware of pests/disease endemic to certain species. Right now, and for the next several years, I wouldn't plant either a birch or an ash unless the birch is listed as resistant to the borders and the ash resistant to the emerald ash borer, which is getting out of control in a lot of areas.

No matter which species you plant, there are diseases/pests that will target it to some degree. No tree is bulletproof.

[Dotch]

...other than boxelder weeds, er, trees, of course! Interesting discussion and follows a lot of the thinking we've used here in the past 25 years. We have most of the trees mentioned plus a few more. Food source and cover trees/shrubs have been our primary focus. We're reaping the benefits of what we started back then now in variety and number of birds and it keeps getting better. A compromise birch tree might be the river birch. We've had one here for ~ 15 years and while it's not as showy as the paper birch, it isn't bothered by the birch borers either. Pretty tree and the birds use it as well as the fir and pine beside it for cover. Minnetrista is not Bugtussle though so I wish you the best of luck Griggs!

[glenn57]

Birch borers are very tough on the birches both in the Bemidji and Ely/Babbitt areas right now. We're losing the white birch in our Ely yard, and all the birches on the family lake place, as well as around the lake itself near Bemidji, are on the way out.

Eventually I suspect the borers will reach a point where they'll fade away once their food supply is dead, after which the birches will recover from seed and start the long cycle all over again.

When I was in the tree business lo these 20 years ago, birch borers in N.D. were wreaking havoc on the birches there, and I removed a whole lot of them.

It does pay to be aware of pests/disease endemic to certain species. Right now, and for the next several years, I wouldn't plant either a birch or an ash unless the birch is listed as resistant to the borders and the ash resistant to the emerald ash borer, which is getting out of control in a lot of areas.

No matter which species you plant, there are diseases/pests that will target it to some degree. No tree is bulletproof.

SO, hat does a gut look for in these birch borer for sign?

[Dotch]

I bookmarked this a few months ago as Mom has a paper birch clump in her yard that's been there for 40 years. Not a lot of birch close by but rather than be the guy who winds up taking it down, I'd prefer avoiding it at all costs:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG1417.html

[half-dutch]

Dotch,

Your mom's birch clump should be quite dramatic at that age.

Two things: the site you bookmarked is very good. Good soil and a constant source of moisture are the best protection against birch borers. Secondly, less nice, birches in general aren't really long lived trees, although the river birches can be. 40 years is really a better than average run already.

To replace a bored out white birch clump, always avoid those varieties developed out of the European white birch.

American white birches are better.

Look for a variety of the Japanese white birch called Whitespire which is even better.

You can also get clumps or individual stems of the river birch which is most borer resistant. Heritage river birch often has light stems almost white in some cases.

A lot of Minnesota areas had drought this year, in a lot of areas going back well into last year. Birches would have been especially susceptible to borer infestation as a result of the stress from that.

One other thing, unless completely dead mature trees will often "copse" after being cut down and send up quite a few "suckers", letting you start all over from the original stump. You pick three or four good stems and you are right back in business. Or you can leave the whole works and you will have a bush that will eventually develop some main stems on its own, but not nearly as fast as if you restrict the number of shoots.

Bottom line: None of the birches like being drought stressed.

[Dotch]

Thanks for the great info HD. She was fortunate to have received ample rainfall this season and the tree appeared to be doing well last time I was there. Her lawn needed constant mowing most of the summer. I'll see the tree tomorrow while making a squash, pumpkin and Indian corn drop there. Not sure on the variety as I think it was one of those deals Dad found at a nursery once upon a time. Mom wanted one because there were so many birch in the pasture west of Chatfield where she grew up so he bought it. The bark has never been real white, more of an off white-light gray for whatever reason. It is a wren magnet. One nests in the house in that tree every year.

Agree too on the soil/moisture issue. We used to garden the area where Mom's birch is. My wife has a hort background & worked hort retail for many moons so we planted the river birch here in a lower area of the yard where the soil is deep and rich. It has flourished with minimal attention. There have been numerous warblers all over the yard today including a black and white I've been watching work over the silver maple (was here when I got here) from the keyboard.

[Steve Foss]

Really good info, half-dutch. Thanks for taking the time to add to the informational stream.