Providing bird feeders, bird houses, water and wildlife-friendly landscaping can provide hours of enjoyment for you and your family.

Many birds benefit from trees, shrubs and flowers that are native to Illinois. These plantings provide food and safe nesting places. Here’s a guide to Midwestern birds commonly seen in our Illinois backyards.

Q. What kind of tree ornaments can I make for birds?
A.  A fun, kid-friendly project is to make seed bowls with citrus fruits. Cut an orange or grapefruit in half and squeeze out the juice. Punch three or four holes along the edge so that you can tie a string through them and form a hanging bowl, which you fill with seed.

Or, use a bird watching guide, such as the Audubon Guide to North American Birds or other bird guide books may help you. In any case, one of the steps toward simplifying bird identification is to familiarize yourself with the parts of a bird’s body.

This way, when color placement or size is being described, you will know which areas are being referred to on the bird. This simple bird identification illustration (below) will help you to identify birds with greater ease. Also check out this bird ID guide  from the Illinois Raptor Center Illinois birds commonly seen in our backyards .

It’s important to remember that with small birds, or birds that are far away, most people would have difficulty seeing some of the individual parts of the bird. A pair of good bird watching binoculars really can help you to see the intricate details of even tiny birds such as hummingbirds, kinglets or chicadees.

The 2009 Count will take place this year on December 20. A few volunteers will start out in the very early morning and join with Kurt Dreisilker, the Arboretum’s Manager of Natural Resources, to go owling. Then, the count lasts at the Arb for most of the rest of the day. If experienced birders are interested, they should contact Kurt at 630-725-2093 office or kdreisilker@mortonarb.org.

Results from last year’s Lisle-Arboretum Christmas Bird Count on December 14 showed that 80 different kinds of birds were recorded, including one that was never sighted before, the horned grebe, according to Geoffrey Williamson, circle compiler for the Lisle-Arboretum count. “The count went really well. That’s only the fourth time in 60 counts that we’ve found 80 species or more.” There were record high sightings for bald eagles, brown creepers and common mergansers.

Eastern bluebirds are increasing in numbers at the Arboretum, according to a monitoring program at the Arboretum. With more than 100 bluebird houses and properly-managed open space and natural areas, the eastern bluebird has done remarkably well, preferring remote areas of the museum’s tree collections that are not mowed very often, says Kurt Dreisilker, the Arboretum’s manager of natural resources. But elsewhere, the bluebird, a savanna species, has declined over time as savannas waned.

The Christmas Bird Count is used to estimate bird species populations and see patterns in bird life over time, said Williamson, a Chicago resident who also leads bird watching outings in Lincoln Park for the Chicago Ornithological Society.

Other local counts include the December Chicago Urban Count and the Chicago Lakefront Count. According to the National Audubon Society, more than 57 million birds were reported in the 2007 Christmas Bird Count.

Choose plants with a thought to their winter usefulness. Grow plants that have persistent fruit, seeds or other edible parts that are held above the snow line. These may include lead plant, fragrant sumac, coralberry and wild blackberry.

You also can attract specific bird species by planting certain trees and shrubs. According to research, blue jays love oak acorns. Cedar waxwings prefer junipers. Cardinals like grapevines. That said, no one tree or plant supplies a bird’s total dietary or shelter needs, so having many different types of plantings is ideal.

Check out this info for specific selection information and tips on selecting trees and shrubs that attract birds.

Trees and witches have a long association. According to tradition, a witch’s broom was made with an ash handle (to protect the witch from drowning), birch twigs for the brush (evil spirits used to be “banished” to birches), and thin strips of willow bark to bind the broom together.

The focal point of any witch’s garden should be a hawthorn tree. According to British legend, witches could turn themselves into these thorny and twisted-limbed trees, so it was considered unlucky to bring hawthorn blossoms indoors. Hawthorns were often used as hedges. In fact, the old word for witch—“hag”—has the same root as “hedge.”

Try thornless cockspur hawthorn, a 20-30 foot tall native tree that likes full sun and well-drained soil. Its leaves turn orange or rust-colored in fall, and this tree is among more than 180,000 trees and other plants in The Morton Arboretum collections–many of which are still in fall color. The cockspur hawthorn displays beautiful fruit in winter. A good alternative is Winter King hawthorn (right) , which thrives in full sun and tolerates urban soils.

Another indispensible plant for a witch’s garden is an elder tree, according to British folklore. Not only did witches grow them, they were believed to live in them. Naturally, superstitions evolved. Never burn elder wood in a fireplace or use it to make a baby’s cradle. Before cutting down an elder tree, apologize to the witch inside it—or risk injury from a falling branch or errant ax swing.

An American relative is common elderberry, a native 6-12-foot shrub with large, flat clusters of white flowers from late June to August (right), followed by dark purple-black berries. Elderberry deals well with sun and shade. It does best in moist soils, but tolerates dry conditions. It sends out suckers and likes to form thickets, so give it some space to grow.

Ideas for witch-themed plantings are inspired by folklore, and a few plants have creepy names thrown in for fun, says Arboretum Assistant Manager of Horticulture, Abigail Rea. “Give your visitors clues such as a cauldron planter or a decorative broom,” suggests Rea. The plants are suitable for our climate and do well in partial shade.

Start with Bennett eastern hemlock, a 5-foot tall evergreen shrub with dark green needles that likes shade or partial shade. Add common bleeding heart, which blooms early spring, and bloodred geranium for summer bloom and good fall color. Monkshood, a 2-3-foot tall perennial, sports violet-blue hooded flowers on tall stems in late summer or early autumn. Finish with spotted dead-nettle, a low, pink-flowered ground cover with green and silver-gray leaves.

And as you dig into this bed, consider the witch’s bed. When she said, “I slept like a log last night,” she was using witch code for “I went out with my witchy friends last night.” Legend says a witch would leave a tree log adorned with her nightcap in her bed, so that her unsuspecting husband would be none the wiser.

Glad You Asked
Q. My hawthorn tree attracts a lot of birds. What other trees do so?
A. Common hackberry (48 bird species), wild black cherry (84 bird species) and pagoda dogwood (93 bird species) are also bird-friendly. For more information, check out the Trees and Shrubs that Attract Birds leaflet.

This post was adpated from an article written by The Morton Arboretum and first published in the Chicago Sun Times.