The Tiny Garden Tweak That Makes Birds Flock To Your Yard

Homeowners are constantly looking for ways to invite a variety of birds to their yards. For instance, there are different types of bird feeders for attracting different species of birds. Although bird feeders work, creating an entire environment where the birds feel naturally at home is better than merely installing a few feeders with seeds and waiting by your window for the birds to appear.

One way to create a homier space for the birds is to simply dig up a small patch of ground in your yard. All you need to do is take a trowel and disturb a bit of soil at a favorable spot for the birds, and that's about it! This may sound too good (or easy) to be true, but the fact that you're opening up new food sources for the birds is what makes this simple hack work. Apart from uncovering fresh worms and seeds for them to feed on, digging up a dirt patch also provides birds with a place to clean themselves and get rid of harmful parasites.

Lots of food sources stay hidden from the sight of birds, particularly during the winter season, when the food is scarce and the ground is frozen. When you dig the soil up, you expose forage materials like earthworms, bugs, and seeds in a natural environment, where plenty of birds — especially ground-feeding species — are used to foraging anyway. Birds like sparrows and American robins prefer feeding off the ground and would gladly welcome this change. In fact, robins will often follow the trail of wild boars or other bigger animals that turn over the soil, making it easier to find food. You can do the same in your yard — a feeding tip to keep the birds happy all season long!

Apart from serving as feeding stations, a natural patch of soil also helps the birds bathe and remove excess oil from their bodies. Dust works like a dry shampoo by absorbing excess oil. This process is crucial for the birds to keep their feathers clean and stay free of parasites. In fact, adding a diatomaceous earth mixture to chicken's dust baths has proven to be highly effective in keeping them free of mites, as the soil absorbs the waxy coating on the mites' surfaces and kills them. Dust also helps in removing dry skin from the bodies of bathing fauna.

When you are creating this patch, remember that you don't have to entirely cultivate the soil. Choose a small spot, pick a trowel, and disturb the vegetation in that region just enough so that they are not entirely uprooted. You can do this near garden borders as well, as long as the place is quiet enough for the birds to forage peacefully. During the winters, you can shovel up an area that is exposed to the sun, so the patch remains thawed. Furthermore, you should stick to the same spot for this practice as well, so the birds remember where they can find food and visit you every day.

It is understandable if you think that this small and simple soil-exposing hack can not be that influential for the birds. However, soil has always indirectly affected birds by controlling the health of the plants they feed on. Soil also has a direct influence over the birds' health, especially in the case of ground-foraging birds — when the soil is polluted with contaminants (such as metals), many small bird species become vulnerable to illnesses. Therefore, by creating healthy foraging conditions for the birds in your yard, you're not just improving the aesthetics of your property but also the well-being of the native wildlife.