Our family’s latest hobby is all about backyard birds. 

We have several feeders, some bird baths (one is heated for those winter months), and an array of food options that we stock in the feeders, including seeds, dried fruit and mealworms. (All the tasty snacks birds love!) We even have a feeder with a little camera so we can watch the varieties of birds that visit our backyard throughout the year. 

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As a Denver Water employee, I have learned so much about efficient water use, but I’ve never thought about how birds are connected to my home’s landscape. 

I want my landscaping to be water-efficient and I want to support a thriving ecosystem that includes our regular visitors of birds, bats, bees, insects, bunnies, raccoons, squirrels and even foxes. As my husband says: We want a wild, living backyard.

And honestly, figuring out how to accomplish that can be complicated and overwhelming. So, let’s break it down.

Understanding the ecosystem of my neighborhood

First, let’s imagine what Denver’s landscape was before we built a city filled with houses and industry. It was full of grasses, trees, bushes and flowering plants that thrive in our climate. 

And many of those plants were habitat for our favorite pollinators: moths and butterflies.

Lepidoptera (the scientific name for moths and butterflies) are considered our canary in the coal mine in terms of measuring the health of our local ecosystems. If there are a variety of butterflies and moths, it is likely that there is a healthy ecosystem that supports all kinds of bugs, fish, animals and birds.

Different species of moths and butterflies are particular about which plants they choose to lay their eggs on, and which plants the hatched caterpillars like to eat. 

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Learn about ColoradoScaping, the water-wise fit for our semi-arid climate, at denverwater.org/Conserve.

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These preferred plant species are called host plants, and each species of lepidoptera has certain host plants that it needs to complete its full lifecycle. Other plants can be toxic to them, and they can’t adapt. If their host plant is gone; they are gone. 

And here’s where the birds come in. Mother birds love to feed their babies those little caterpillars. They are squishy, easy to swallow and full of protein. 

Having plentiful butterflies supports healthy bird populations, who then grow up and feed on insects (like pesky mosquitoes) and spread seeds, contributing to a thriving ecosystem. When a momma bird can’t find those tasty caterpillars for her babies, she feeds them whatever she can find, and sometimes abandons some chicks in order to give others the best chance at survival.

So, it follows that to have healthy bird populations, you need healthy moth and butterfly populations. And to have healthy moth and butterfly populations, you need a variety of host plants that have grown in the area for thousands of years and thrive in our semi-arid climate. 

And therein lies the connection to our backyard. 

My home was built in the mid-70s. The vegetation thriving in my area was stripped away and replaced with non-native plants. I have a Siberian crab apple (Russia), Kentucky bluegrass (Europe/Eurasia) and lilac bushes (Europe). I also have two massive cottonwood trees, though I don’t know their exact species to say if they are native or not.

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As people have come and gone from this house, the landscaping has evolved with them. Some have planted roses (Asia) and boxwood shrubs (Europe, Asia, Africa and Madagascar), hostas (northeast Asia) and bleeding heart (northeastern US) around the edges of a yard of Kentucky bluegrass. 

None of those plants are host plants for the lepidoptera that should be living in my area.

The best way to be good stewards of our local ecosystem is to bring back the plants that were here long before my neighborhood existed. 

So how do I ColoradoScape and help the birds?

ColoradoScaping is the intentional return to the landscapes that were here thousands of years before humans inhabited this area. It’s about incorporating trees, bushes and plants that thrive in our semi-arid climate and support local ecosystems.

Identifying what to incorporate into your new, ecosystem-friendly landscape can feel overwhelming, but the following resources can help. 

The first question to ask yourself is “What kind of ecosystem do I want to create?”

I want to provide seeds, fruits and caterpillars for the birds and have a healthy system to support pollinators. To do that, I need to see which birds are visiting my yard and learn what they eat.

For now, I am going to focus on two of my frequent visitors: the blue jay and the house finch. 

Watch a male house finch eat some seeds from our feeder. Credit: Denver Water.

My first resource is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which has a website that is full of information about birds. They also have a cool app, called Merlin Bird ID, to help identify the birds in my area. 

The blue jay, while not actually blue, is an omnivore that feeds on seeds and nuts from trees, shrubs or from the ground. They will also hunt dead or injured small bugs (invertebrates) and caterpillars. House finches are plant eaters (herbivores) and prefer to eat seeds, buds and fruit. 

Knowing this information helps me start to identify the types of plants that will meet the needs of my most common bird visitors. 

The next resource is Denver Audubon for information about native plants that support our local birds. I started with their “Native Plants for Birds” handout. There are several plants that are suited for finches and jays. 

And my final resource is Native Plant Finder by the National Wildlife Federation, which uses my ZIP code to give me a list of native plants for my area and the moths and butterflies those plants support (their host plants).

Using these resources, I note that the common sunflower (Helianthus annus) comes up as a plant that is favored by jays and finches and is native to my area. It also serves as a caterpillar host plant for over 69 species of moths and butterfly species, making the sunflower an excellent choice for my sunny backyard. 

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These resources can help me select plants and bushes that are host plants for the moths and butterflies, support other pollinators (such as bees), and produce seeds or fruit for the birds. I can also be mindful of the seasons in which the plants put out seeds, nuts or fruit throughout the year.

Plan in the fall and winter, plant in the spring

ColoradoScaping the yard doesn’t need to happen in a weekend. 

I am starting with just a small area of my yard and planning the layout of plants, based on the amount of sunshine the area gets and the watering needs of the plants. 

And I’m making a list of plants that I am thinking about planting in the spring, a list that currently includes tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa), silvery lupine (Lupinus argenteus), prairie violet (Viola pedatifida) and skunkbrush sumac (Rhus trilobata). 

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Here is some of what I’ve learned about the plants on my list: 

The tufted evening primrose (top left in the picture above) blooms in the evening and is a host plant for the white-lined sphinx moth, sometimes known as a hummingbird moth. On the top right is the silvery lupine, a drought-tolerant plant that has bean-like seeds that are toxic to humans and pets if ingested.

The skunkbrush sumac on the bottom right is a shrub that grows about 3 feet high and is a source of berries for birds and critters during the winter. Lastly, on the bottom left, the prairie violet is native to the U.S. and Canada and flowers between March and June. 

Together, these plants provide support for over 123 species of moths and butterflies that should thrive in my area. 

As you winterize your yard this fall, look at the areas that you want to improve. 

Imagine what type of ecosystem you want to cultivate in that space and start planning now so you are ready to spring into action when the snow melts and the birds are feeding their young.

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