Turning Your Backyard into Wild Bird Habitat: Berries for Birds
You will be amazed by the variety of birds you will attract to your backyard wild bird habitat if you include trees and shrubs that produce berries in your landscaping plan. In fact, it has been reported that the fruit of different dogwoods has attracted more than 90 species of birds. Your berry bearing trees and shrubs will attract not only the familiar bird species that visit your feeders and nest in your yard like cardinals, woodpeckers, mockingbirds, blue jays, sparrows, robins, and bluebirds but also the less familiar like towhees, waxwings, warblers, thrushes, thrashers, catbirds, and kingbirds.
Birds will not only benefit from the food produced by your new shrubs and trees but you’ll also be providing them with additional nesting sites and good cover that serves as protection from predators. The dense foliage of dogwood bushes is a safe haven for birds’ nests and thorny berry bushes will be a welcome retreat for the birds when the neighbor’s cat is wandering through your backyard!
Your landscaping project should begin with a diagram of your property showing buildings and existing plantings. As you are researching the new plants you want and start to plot them on your drawing, you need to consider the amount of sun/shade the plants will receive, the general soil conditions and the amount of space available for growth. Birds are more attracted to areas with a variety of plants so make your yard as natural as you can. Try to create an edge effect, where two or more plant communities come together – for example, shrubs and trees in a bed adjacent to lawn or meadow. Plant in groupings of three or more and combine trees and shrubs whose berries will ripen at different times of the year. Choose native species as they will be more adapted to the growing conditions of your specific area.
Below is a list (common species name) of popular berry bearing trees, shrubs and vines that are hardy to the Cincinnati Tri-State area. When you are shopping for your new plants, check nursery tags carefully as some specific species of these plants are not native to our area and some are not fruit producers.

Summer Fruit
Bayberries (M/F)
Blackberries/Raspberries
Blueberries
Cherries
Chokecherries
Gooseberries
Grapes
Honeysuckle
Red mulberry (X)
Serviceberries

Fall/Winter Fruit
American holly (M/F)
Barberries
Bittersweet
Blue holly (M/F)
Crabapples
Dogwoods
Eastern redbud
Euonymus (Burning Bush)
Hawthorns
Red cedar
Sumacs
Viburnums
Virginia creeper

Notes:
(M/F) = both male and female plant needed for flowers/fruit
(X) = very messy tree/shrub, keep away from patios, driveways, sidewalks

Resources:
Wildbird Magazine 12/99 “Berry Merry Birds” & 09/00 “The Fruit and Fat Factor”
Birder’s World Magazine 06/00 “Hedgerows for Berry Birds”
Bird Watcher’s Digest Creating Your Backyard Bird Garden
Donald & Lillian Stokes Bird Gardening Book
Denny McKeown The Gardening Book for Ohio