Plant collection

Nesting Plants for Birds

Nesting plants for birds come in two kinds: dense shrubs, evergreens and vine tangles for open-cup nesters, and trees with dead or rotten wood for the cavity nesters that excavate.

Growing facts are from the Wildflower Center's Native Plant Database, the native-plant case is Audubon's ¹, and nesting habits are from All About Birds ⁹¹⁰¹¹¹².

Eastern red cedar foliage and cones — one of the densest nesting plants for birds such as doves — Photo: Fungus Guy, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Nesting plants for birds that build cup nests

Northern Cardinals nest in a fork of small branches in a sapling, shrub or vine tangle, 1–15 feet up and hidden in dense foliage ⁹; Mourning Doves nest amid dense foliage on the branch of an evergreen or vine ¹⁰. Eastern red cedar provides nesting material and cover ², American holly provides cover and nesting sites ³, winterberry is listed for cover and nesting site ⁴, and elderberry and serviceberry grow into the dense multi-stemmed clumps cup nesters use ⁵⁶.

Trees for cavity nesters

Black-capped Chickadees often excavate their own cavity in dead snags or rotten branches, frequently alder or birch ¹¹ — paper birch is the tree ⁸. Tufted Titmice cannot excavate and use natural holes and old woodpecker holes ¹²; American beech, listed as a nesting site, is long-lived and holds such cavities ⁷. Leave dead limbs and snags standing where it is safe.

Why native plants first

Native plants are those that occur naturally in the region where they evolved, and Audubon calls them the ecological basis on which birds depend: without them and the insects that co-evolved with them, local birds cannot survive ¹. The scale matters — a native oak supports over 500 species of caterpillars where a ginkgo hosts five, and it takes more than 6,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees ¹. Most nursery landscaping plants are alien species, so choosing natives is the single landscaping decision with the clearest effect on bird populations ¹.

The alternative is what most yards already have. Audubon notes that manicured lawn now covers over 40 million acres of the United States as a green monoculture, that the traditional suburban lawn carries on average ten times more chemical pesticide per acre than farmland, and that the continental U.S. has lost 150 million acres of habitat and farmland to sprawl ¹. Every bed of natives that replaces turf is habitat that lawn cannot be, and long-lived native trees such as oaks and maples also store carbon ¹.

Check the native range before buying: the Wildflower Center record for this species lists the states and provinces where it occurs naturally ², and Audubon's zip-code native plant database narrows that to your area and the bird groups each plant attracts ¹. Once established, native plants generally need little maintenance and far less water than lawn, and they do not need the pesticides that make a yard poor bird habitat ¹.

Each plant above links to its own profile with the Wildflower Center's native range, so you can confirm it occurs naturally where you live before buying ¹.

More plant guides

American Elderberry →Canadian Serviceberry →Flowering Dogwood →Winterberry →American Holly →Eastern Redcedar →Virginia Creeper →American Beech →Paper Birch →Native plants for birds →Berry plants for birds →Seed plants for birds →Nectar plants for birds →Shelter plants for birds →

Frequently asked questions

What plants do cardinals nest in?

Dense shrubs, saplings and vine tangles 1–15 feet up; native shrubs like elderberry, serviceberry and winterberry fit ⁹.

What trees do chickadees nest in?

Rotten branches and snags, frequently alder or birch — paper birch on this site ⁸¹¹.