Native Plants Provide Valuable Food for Birds in Winter – Experts Reveal 5 of the Best You Can Plant to Support Feathered Friends in Your Yard

Winter can be a tricky time for birds, as food can be scarce. One of the best ways to support birds at this time of year is to have plants they can visit to feed on berries and seeds. You can plant trees, shrubs, and perennial plants in a yard to make a valuable difference, but are some better than others?

Well, the answer is yes. As Dr Vladimir Pravosudov, an expert in bird behaviour and bird ecology from the University of Nevada, Reno, advises: ‘Homeowners should only plant native trees and plants - the ones that the local birds would be accustomed to in their natural environment.’ Luckily, there is a wide selection of native plants you can add to your garden to provide food in winter.

This guide highlights five fantastic plants for birds that are native and not only look fabulous in your yard, but also offer valuable food and shelter for local birds. If you want to add more winter plants for wildlife, such as shrubs and perennial plants to feed birds in winter, to your backyard, all these definitely fit the bill.

5 plants to feed birds in winter

The following shrubs and perennials will provide vital food sources for birds all winter. If you want more plants to feed birds in winter, this guide highlights some fantastic choices that will attract a wide selection of birds to your yard.

I spoke to some wildlife and gardening experts, and here we also reveal some useful planting and maintenance tips for each of the selections.

1. Winterberry

Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) shrubs can support a wide range of birds during winter, including robins, bluebirds, woodpeckers, waxwings, thrushes, and many more. As stunning shrubs with winter berries, winterberries offer a high-calorie food source to help birds survive winter.

‘This small North American native tree produces cheerful, bright red-orange berries that are a treat to our hungry feathered friends during dreary days,’ says Colleen Dieter, a designer and garden educator in Lexington, Texas. ‘Its multiple trunks and crossing branches also provide a good structure for nest building in spring.’

‘In my designs, I often line up this tree with windows so my customers can enjoy the small white flowers in spring, yellow fall color on the leaves and orange berries in the winter. It's one of my favorites,’ she adds.

Winterberry bushes are part of the holly family, can reach eight feet, and are suitable for US hardiness zones 3-9. Plant them in sun or dappled shade, and in moist, but not waterlogged, soil.

You can get a Berry Heavy Winterberry Holly at Nature Hills to help support birds in your yard.

Colleen Dieter

Colleen is the founder of Red Wheelbarrow garden service, which transforms yards in Central Texas. As a top gardening educator, she speaks to audiences about native Texas planting. Colleen is also the founder of Central Texas Seed Savers and creator of “Let’s Care for Texas Plants,” a guide to native plant maintenance.

2. American beautyberry

American beautyberry shrubs burst into show in fall, with their bright purple berries making them a standout choice for cold-season color and interest. While they do have small flowers that attract pollinators in early summer, it is their fall and winter show of berries that has birds flocking to them.

‘In the wild, I’ve watched birds rely on late-season berries to make it through the longest stretches of winter,’ says Peter Gros, a veteran wildlife expert and co-host at Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild. ‘Native shrubs like American beautyberry hold onto their fruit past the first frost, offering nourishment when insects and other food sources disappear.

‘Species such as robins, waxwings, chickadees, and thrushes instinctively return to these plants year after year because they know they can depend on them.’

American beautyberry bushes reach 3-6 feet tall and are native to the South-eastern United States. These rounded shrubs are suitable for zones 6-11 and can be used in many different ways in a garden, from mixed flower borders to informal hedges.

You can get an American beautyberry bush at Perfect Plants Nursery to add dramatic color and berries to your garden to benefit wildlife during the winter.

As with others on this list, don’t prune beautyberry shrubs until early spring, as trimming in late fall or early winter removes the valuable fruits.

Peter Gros

Peter Gros is a veteran wildlife expert who shares his love for wildlife and wilderness with families and children throughout the country. He has nearly 30 years of field experience with wildlife and has been a part of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom since 1985.

3. Viburnum

There are over 150 types of viburnum globally, and a good selection of native varieties to grow as plants to feed birds in winter. The likes of arrowhead viburnum, mapleleaf viburnum, and blackhaw viburnum are all native shrubs that offer beauty throughout the year, while also offering nutritious berries that birds and other wildlife can enjoy in winter.

Colleen Dieter highlights the Rusty Blackhaw Viburnum as her personal favorite. She says: ‘The berries on the Rusty Blackhaw are small and dark blue, they are also edible for humans in addition to birds, they taste like raisins.

‘It gets incredible red fall color and big white flowers in spring. The flowers grow into fruit that ripens in late fall and stays on the tree to feed birds in winter.’

Viburnum berries can last into winter and are known to attract cardinals, bluebirds, robins, finches, waxwings, and thrushes. You don’t want to prune viburnum before winter to hold onto these berries; only remove any dead or damaged branches if you do anything with viburnums in the fall.

You can get a live Blackhaw Viburnum starter plant at Walmart if you want to add this shrub to your garden.

4. Black-Eyed Susan

Rudbeckia hirta, or black-eyed Susan as it is commonly known, is a native North American perennial flower that wants to be left untouched after its summer blooming to truly benefit wildlife.

Birds, including finches, sparrows, and chickadees, all feast on the seed heads during winter, while the plant’s stems can provide essential shelter for pollinators and beneficial insects.

It means you need to resist any desire to cut back black-eyed Susans come fall. Steve Corcoran, CEO of Lawn Love, says: ‘These are flowers that you can prune before winter because they’ll grow back the following year; however, you can also leave the flower heads alone so that their seeds can be a food source for birds in the winter.’

When you grow black-eyed Susan, leave the cutting back until late winter or early spring, before the new growth starts again.

There are many different species and varieties of black-eyed Susan you can plant, but ‘American Gold Rush’ is a great choice for a long-flowering perennial with tall golden blooms from mid-summer into fall. You can get an ‘American Gold Rush’ black-eyed Susan at Nature Hills to grow in zones 4 to 9.

5. Coneflower

In the same vein as with black-eyed Susan, when you grow coneflowers, you really want to avoid cutting the stems down in winter. The old coneflower heads are packed with nutrient-rich seeds that can serve as a vital food source for goldfinches, cardinals, and chickadees during winter, and the plants also offer protection.

‘For shelter, one of the simplest things you can do for wintering birds is to leave native perennials standing,’ says Peter Gros. ‘The purple coneflower's dried seed heads become a food source when snow covers the ground, and those sturdy stems also help create pockets of shelter for ground-feeding birds trying to escape harsh winds.'

Holding off on cutting back coneflowers also has a visual impact in a winter garden. The dark seed cones bring height, drama, and movement to a flower bed, and also look glorious with touched with frost on cold mornings.

There are many great coneflower varieties to choose from to put in your beds and borders, and there are even compact varieties if you want to grow coneflowers in pots. A top native choice is the Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), and you can get Purple Coneflower starter plants at Amazon to plant in the spring.

Whether to put away or leave a bird feeder out for winter can be confusing, especially with hummingbird feeders, as you may not expect to see them over the colder months.

However, you should leave hummingbird feeders out in winter in many parts of the US, especially the southern states, where hummingbirds can be seen overwintering. A good reference point to heed is to leave it out for 2-4 weeks after the last sighting of the breeding birds to keep a food source available for those migrating.