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Create spaces for wildlife to thrive
Habitat loss is one of the biggest threats to wildlife as human development changes natural landscapes. Providing artificial habitat is one way to help support bird, bat, and insect populations.
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Support birds with feeders and baths
People love to feed birds. Aside from gardening, it is considered one of the most popular hobbies around the globe, and feeding can support birds through the winter months. Common ingredients include black-oiled sunflower seed, hulled sunflower seed, millet, nyjer, milo, and suet. Bird seed should be fresh and mold-free, and feeders should be cleaned every few weeks. Check out Good Growing’s video explaining how to create a healthy winter bird haven as well as year round advice.
The water in bird baths should be changed regularly to prevent mosquito larvae and algae from taking over the bath. Cleaning the basin is also important. The Good Growing blog and Audubon recommend cleaning with a vinegar mixture instead of soap, so as to not damage the oils in bird plumage. Bird baths should not be more than a few inches deep.
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Seek birdhouses for native birds
Before you buy or build a birdhouse or nest box, ask what kind of bird you want to use it. If you aren’t careful, house sparrows or the invasive European starling will take up residence. Check out these links to nestwatch and Cornell for tips on building or selecting a suitable birdhouse.
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Provide appropriate bat houses
Bat houses are an attractive conservation tool due to heightened concerns about our resident bat populations, which are in decline due to habitat loss, disease, and energy development projects. Bat boxes can be important surrogates for the tree cavities and crevices that are the natural habitat for many common and endangered bat species. Adult females sometimes form maternity colonies in bat boxes, staying in them for the duration of the summer and rearing their pups until they’re able to fly. Because boxes are used as nursery roosts during both the heat of the day and cool summer nights, it’s critical that boxes retain heat but don’t overheat. This presents a design challenge that cannot be solved simply by painting boxes a dark color. We offer design and construction tips for making bat houses safer for bats https://wildlife.nres.illinois.edu/safer_bat_boxes/ but also encourage bat enthusiasts to apply other strategies to help bat populations. For example, planting trees will provide future roosting habitat and pollinator-friendly plants will boost populations of bats’ insect prey. It’s also critical to protect and maintain clean natural water sources and reduce light and chemical pollution in the environment.
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Bee hotels can support insect populations
Bee Hotels, or artificial nesting structures intended for native bees, are common in gardens across the U.S. These “hotels” are collections of tubes or drilled tunnels suitable for use by cavity-nesting bees. But are they the safe havens for bee biodiversity that they are made out to be? A graduate student at University of Illinois is currently examining this question. If you have a bee hotel in your garden, we highly recommend you follow the cleaning and maintenance outlined in North Carolina Extension’s “How to Manage a Successful Bee Hotel” to ensure your bee hotel isn’t spreading diseases in the local pollinator community.
Exploring Artificial Habitat
Bats are essential to a healthy ecosystem. The species eat insects that are pests to trees, crops, and us. Most bats use trees as their daytime roosts during spring, summer, and fall. If a location has good places for bats to hunt for food, what attracts them to roost on the property?
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The garden doesn’t stop being a haven in the winter months. Lots of wildlife can use your yard for over-wintering and provide a delightful spectacle on cold days as we look out dreaming of warmer weather. Attracting birds to the winter landscape can be incredibly rewarding for people of all ages...
Are bee hotels are beneficial or detrimental to bees? A University of Illinois research project on bee hotels includes a citizen science component to try and find out. The research team share their insights on what they hope to discover through this scientific endeavor.