A garden for

Creating habitats: vegetation structure The litter layer All birds require a reliable food source, places to shelter from predators and inclement weather, Tidying up can be detrimental to the health and dense vegetation where they feel safe to breed and wellbeing of birds and other fauna. When left on a safe water supply. A garden designed to attract the ground rather than being tidied up or burnt, leaf birds will have a variety of vegetation layers that will litter, fallen branches and logs enrich the soil with cater for the different foraging needs of different nutrients as they break down. Fungi and bacteria, species. (see illustration page 2) which are the main agents of decay, are a food source for hundreds of species of insects. As most For example, birds such as robins, wrens and birds eat insects at some stage in their development, scrubwrens mostly forage on the ground or in low this organic material is essential for their survival. understorey vegetation. A variety of grasses, saggs Logs retain a high moisture content, especially and low bushes provide habitat for the insects and during summer when surrounding vegetation can other invertebrates which are the main food items dry out. This makes them especially important as for these birds. habitat for frogs and invertebrates and as vital Safe sheltering places can be created by planting refuges during and after fires. native daisies and peas, which provide a dense or prickly mid layer of vegetation. This shrub layer is a Spiders good source of insect food for many native birds. Not only do birds eat spiders, many use spiders' In larger gardens that have enough room for webs in the construction of their nests. Spiders are eucalypts, pardalotes, Golden Whistlers and an important component of any ecosystem; many endemic may visit to forage on feed on seed eating insects that are responsible for invertebrates they find on the leaves, branches or poor germination. Web building spiders rely on a trunks of the trees. complex three dimensional structure of leaves, twigs and plants to build and maintain their snares. Not too many callistemons and grevilleas Spiders’ webs that are left around windows are an easy source of nest binding material for birds such A garden designed to attract native birds as Silvereyes, robins and Eastern . involves much more than simply planting a selection of nectar producing shrubs. Too many Water plants like callistemons and grevilleas attract larger A wide shallow dish is suitable for small and birds such as New Holland Honeyeaters and Little medium sized birds, but they will only drink and Wattlebirds. While these birds are a welcome sight bathe if they feel safe. Ensure that available water in the garden, they often aggressively exclude other is out of reach of predatory cats and has overhead nectar feeders, such as Eastern Spinebills, from a vegetation which provides a screen from aerial rich food source, and will even chase away smaller predators like hawks or aggressive birds like insect eaters such as fairy-wrens and thornbills. butcherbirds, shrike-thrushes or kookaburras.

Compiled by Sarah Lloyd

Feeding requirements of some bush birds Some plants for bushbirds Invertebrate (insects and spiders) eaters Canopy trees Most local eucalypts will be too large for the average Aerial feeders garden. For larger gardens suitable plants include Tree Martin Silver Wattle Acacia dealbata Welcome Swallow Blackwood Acacia melanoxylon Grey Fantail Barber’s Gum barberi Satin Flycatcher Silver Peppermint Eucalyptus tenuiramis Foliage gleaners White Peppermint Eucalyptus pulchella Pardalotes In smaller gardens, where tall trees are not appropriate, Cuckoos smaller trees can form a canopy: Black-headed She Oak Allocasuarina spp. Golden Whistler Silver Banksia Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Prickly Box Bursaria spinosa Bark probers Native Olive Notelaea ligustrina Yellow-throated Honeyeater Dogwood Pomaderris apetala Scrubtit Shrub midstorey Grey Shrike-thrush Climbing Blueberry Billardiera longiflora Strong-billed Honeyeater Bottlebrush Callistemon spp. Ground foragers Daisy Bushes Cassinia and Olearia spp. Tasmanian Scrubwren Native Currant Coprosma quadrifida Brown Quail Correas Correa spp. Superb Fairy-wren Hop Bush Dodonaea viscosa Bassian Thrush Hakea Hakea spp. Robin Tree Violet Hymenanthera dentata Brush and Common Bronzewings Tea-tree Leptospermum spp. Paperbark Melaleuca spp. Nectar, fruit and seed eaters Cheesewood Pittosporum bicolor Prickly Beauty Pultenaea juniperina Nectar Kangaroo Apple Solanum laciniatum Musk Lorikeet Waratah Telopea truncata Swift Parrot Understorey Plants Eastern Fishbone Water Fern Blechnum nudum Wattlebirds Correa Correa spp. Fruits Flax Lily Dianella spp. Currawongs Native Iris Diplarenna morea Musk Lorikeets Heath Epacrid spp. Eastern & Green Rosellas Cutting Grass Gahnia grandis Silvereye Rush Juncus spp. Seeds Running postman Kennedia prostrata Rosellas and Parrots Sagg Lomandra longifolia Beautiful Firetail Tussock Grasses Poa spp. Kangaroo Grass Themeda triandra

For more information contact: HABITAT PLANTS Sally & Herbert Staubmann Phone:6397 3400 email: [email protected] / www.:habitatplants.com.au also see: http://www.parks.tas.gov.au (wildlife) http://www.birdlife.org.au/