I just had a few books out of the library and the best one so far was TREES, SHRUBS, AND VINES FOR ATTRACTING BIRDS. Had a great chart in the back listing berry times for each plant. Most useful one I had out.

Adam

My favorite - The Naturalist's Garden by Ruth Shaw Ernst - 1987. The best of all bird garden books that I own.

Hi,
I have several books that I really like for birds and wildlife. The 4 that come to mind are: "Your Backyard Wildlife Year" by Marcus Schneck, and "Gardening For Wildlife" by Craig Tufts and Peter Loewer and "Landscaping for Wildlife" by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and "Natural Landscaping" by Sally Roth. These 4 books have given me so many good ideas.

This is what the suburbs was meant to be -- a genuine piece of the country!

Not a carpet of chemically-treated grass with a few exotic trees and sterile shrubs.

Now that wildlife habitat is so scarce it is our responsibility to provide what they need in our own backyards, which were once theirs.

Of course, a primary reason that habitat is disappearing, is because of unchecked sprawl. Is the desire to garden for wildlife, partly motivated by guilt at the way we are living?

I think I would have real problems, if I lived in the suburbs. I live out in the country. I have learned that weeds have a real place in this circle of life, and am not afraid of them any more. But explaining this to people who think manicured (sterile) lawns are the best, is fairly futile. Some neighborhoods aren't even allowed to have milkweed! It gets scary to me when people who think like this make the rules!
Sara Stein's book "Noah's Garden" is a good book for people in the 'burbs. But it seems to me that you really have to experience a real enlightenment, to see the goodness and importance of the "natural" way, over the popular, sterile notions of a good lawn.

If you're interested in not adding invasive plants to your garden, please be careful about the advice in some of the books geared towards wildlife. Of the books mentioned here, I've only read "Noah's Garden", which I also recommend, and "The Naturalist's Garden" by Ruth Shaw Ernst. The Naturalist's Garden" gave me some good ideas, but also included on its lists of recommended plants Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata), Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii), Rosa rugosa, and Tartarian honeysuckle (Lonicera tatarica). As far as I remember there was no mention of a possible problem of invasiveness. I've seen the same thing in quite a few other books, both those geared toward this topic, and general gardening books with lists of plants good for wildlife.

I remember I liked "National Wildlife Federation Attracting Birds, Butterflies & Backyard Wildlife" by David Mizejewski. Right now I've lent it to my SIL, so I can't check back to see how much "how to" information was there--I was more interested in plant ideas.