My family and I are all a bunch of bird lovers . There are few things that make me as happy as waking up and hearing the different calls and songs of birds as they move through their morning, and I love camping just because you get to hear so many night birds that you otherwise would never know were out there. I've always loved the idea of having my own backyard bird habitat, but I assumed it would be a lot of work.
We recently stayed at a local Airbnb that is a certified bird sanctuary, which kind of surprised me. I was surprised mostly because it just seemed like a regular house with a pretty regular yard, and I assumed that anything with the name "bird sanctuary" attached must be kind of, you know, fancy.
I still don't know the steps involved in becoming an official bird sanctuary, but after we came back home, I decided to find out what we could do to turn our backyard into a backyard bird sanctuary of our own. It turns out it's not even thathard!
When it comes to making your backyard a happy place for birds to be, you don't need much. Truly: A little seed and access to water will go far. Here are a few things you can add to your backyard pretty easily to turn it into a backyard bird sanctuary:
- Feeding stations
- Water stations
- Birdhouses
And really, if you get those three things, you’re off to a great start.
With that in mind, I started looking around for what might work for us. While I loved the idea of building our own birdhouses, we didn't have the extra materials on hand. So I took to Amazon to see if I could find anything online that could be shipped to my home, and it turns out I could! I chose these straw bird homes.
Shop Now: Hummingbird House Set of 3 ($14.99, Amazon)
While the name suggests that only hummingbirds will be attracted to these homes, reviewers say that all kinds of birds have been visiting them. I bought a package of three, and we used rope tossed over the branches of a few of our trees to hoist them up high. So far I haven't seen any birds check them out, but I'm still hopeful.
I love these suet bird feeders, and you can often find them at local hardware stores and even grocery stores if you're looking. Putting the seed in the feeder can be a little messy, but the birds love it! Tip: Squirrels also love it, so if you're not squirrel-friendly, maybe try to come up with a way to keep the critters off the feeder. I love squirrels almost as much as I love birds, so I don't mind if they try to get the food.
Shop Now: Suet Cage Bird Feeder ($5.49, Amazon)
Birds also love it when you have a source of water nearby. They use the water for two reasons: to wash off their bodies and to drink it! Everything I read said to put the water close enough to a food source so that the birds realize it's there, but not so close that it could make a mess or get in their way when they're trying to eat.
Shop Now: Oakleaf Hanging Birthbath ($31.95, Amazon)
We also decided to DIY our own birdbath to see how it went! We used the bottom of a plastic planter that we had lying around, some twine, and a little bit of hot glue to seal in the holes. It was totally a spur-of-the-moment creation, but so far it's held up, and I've even seen a tiny bird in it on a sunny day. Pretty nice!
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