Plant collection

Trees That Attract Birds

Trees that attract birds do more than any feeder: they carry fruit, nuts and seed through the seasons, hold the caterpillars nesting birds need, and give evergreen cover in winter.

The six below are native to eastern North America; growing facts are from the Wildflower Center's Native Plant Database, and the case for natives is Audubon's ¹.

Flowering dogwood in bloom — one of the native trees that attract birds with fruit and caterpillars — Photo: Photo by and (c)2016 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Fruit trees that attract birds

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) carries red fruit for birds, mammals and deer beneath spring blooms and scarlet fall foliage; it wants part shade and acid soil ². Red mulberry (Morus rubra) drops inch-long fruit for birds and mammals over a long season and grows in sun or shade on almost any soil ⁷. American holly (Ilex opaca) is evergreen, its berries attract many bird species, and it provides cover and nesting sites; only females fruit ³.

Nut, seed and cover trees

American beech (Fagus grandifolia) produces beechnuts among the most important of wildlife foods, plus nesting sites and cover — but it needs room and dislikes root disturbance ⁵. Paper birch (Betula papyrifera) is used by songbirds and ground birds and hosts the Luna moth and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, but only where summers are cool ⁶. Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), native in 37 states, offers berries that are a staple for many birds, nesting material and cover, and tolerates drought, heat and cold ⁴.

Audubon's caterpillar count is the reason to plant native trees specifically: a native oak supports over 500 caterpillar species against five for a ginkgo, and a brood of chickadees takes more than 6,000 caterpillars ¹.

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

Flowering Dogwood →American Holly →Eastern Redcedar →American Beech →Paper Birch →Red Mulberry →Cardinal Flower →Trumpet Honeysuckle →Native plants for birds →Berry plants for birds →Seed plants for birds →Nectar plants for birds →Shelter plants for birds →

Frequently asked questions

What is the best tree to attract birds?

For most eastern yards, a native fruiting tree — flowering dogwood or red mulberry — plus an evergreen like eastern red cedar for winter cover and berries ²⁷⁴.

Which trees give birds winter food?

American holly and eastern red cedar hold fruit into winter and are evergreen ³⁴.