Participate

It’s Easy!

  1. Sign Up
  2. Pick a Spot & Add a Plant(s)
  3. Share Photos
  4. Report Garden Birds
Join Garden for Birds

Our monthly emails will help guide your habitat creation!

Gray catbird with berry in its beak on a bright red shrub.
Gray Catbird on Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) displaying its fall color. Photo by Emily Turteltaub Nelson / Macaulay Library.

I watched with delight as phoebes swooped back and forth catching bugs in the spring and summer.

Will Kurtz, Garden for Birds Participant

Pick a Spot & Add a Plant (or Many Plants!)

Shrub with green leaves and purple clustered berries close to the stems.
American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) covered in fuchsia berries beloved by songbirds. Picture from 2025 participant.

Whether you are a seasoned gardener or a beginning green-thumb, we invite you to join Garden for Birds and get planting! Your charge is to add at least one native plant a year (minimum). Our monthly emails will guide you in regional native plant additions to consider. We’ll also provide ideas of bird-friendly habitat features for your landscapes. As your knowledge and comfort grows, so too will your habitat by attracting more birds and biodiversity. There are always new plants to add or more gardens to create! You’ll be in good company with people all over the U.S. and Canada who want to support birds. Together we can bring the birds back.

Share Photos

Each season we’ll ask people to share photos of their gardens, bird-friendly habitat features, and favorite shots of new plant additions. These images act as proof of concept as well as inspire others who are on a journey to create better habitat.

See & Share Habitat Photos
Rocky garden with sculptures and desert plants.
In California, many hummingbirds and pollinators use these arid gardens loaded with native species. Photo by Garden for Birds participant.

Monthly Activities

In our monthly email, we’ll share a recommended list of activities, stories, and links to join webinars. We’ll explore the latest research, resources, and anecdotes to help you continue to support birds at home and in your community. 

Explore Activities
Small brown Canyon wren with insect in its beak looking at a red-throated hummingbird with yellow flowers in the background.
Canyon Wren and Anna’s Hummingbird foraging in the same habitat, both in need of different resources. Photo by chef Ito / Macaulay Library.

Keep Track of Your Birds Through the eBird Garden for Birds Project

The more resources you provide, the more wildlife will be attracted to your property. Let’s document them! By creating eBird checklists you are aligning how your changes in landscape may be affecting bird biodiversity. If everyone planted for birds, we might begin to see bird populations rebound.

Before

House with barren green grass front yard and one spiky plant.
Florida front yard before making native habitat changes. Photo taken in 2019 by Lars Jones.

After

House with a walled-off garden that has all different sizes of plants.
Front yard in 2024 after new habitat matured and filled in the space attracting more and more bird visitors each year. Photo by Lars Jones.

Take this gardener in Florida who became serious about adding native habitat in 2019 when they only saw 37 birds on their property. After adding native plant gardens, this number grew each year, reaching 165 species in just five years! This can be your story, too.

We also encourage you to add media to eBird checklists, documenting the habitat and birds that visit your gardens.

Join Garden for Birds eBird Project

Graph shows the change from a yard with only non-native species and bird feeders to a yard with maturing native habitat. The black line represents when native habitat was added. Each year the number of birds seen on site grew with a 232% increase in different bird species observed four years after gardens were established.

Stay Connected

By subscribing to stay connected to Garden for Birds, you agree to receive communications from the Cornell Lab. You may unsubscribe from the communications at any time.