The best hedges for birds

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Morris Hankinson, director at Hopes Grove Nurseries, has put together his thoughts and tips on the best plants and hedges to grow in gardens for birds from the native Hawthorn to Blackthorn or Sloe. Each one is a magnet for a wide variety of bird life.

Growing a hedge can be one of the best ways of encouraging birds into your plot. By its very design, a hedge is the perfect wildlife corridor making it a magnet for a wide variety of bird life. Any continuous row of shrubs regardless of the species has the potential to provide safe nesting sites and could even be a food source if suitable kinds are chosen – so what are the best hedges to attract birds?

If you could design the perfect hedge for birds, it would look a lot like this.

The gold standard would almost certainly be a specially selected Mixed Native Hedgerow – that is a hedge made up from a range of different native shrub species, chosen to form a Bird Friendly Hedge. Friendly to birds on a very basic level because it has a selection of different twiggy, thorny plants in it so that predatory cats and the like cannot get at their nests, and friendly on the next level because these same carefully chosen plants could provide a bountiful food source of hedgerow fruits, nuts, seeds, and hips during the year. Established natural hedgerows are literally brimming with life – attracting not just birds, but small mammals, reptiles, insects, and invertebrates too. So, the food source attraction to bird life will go well past the seeds, berries and fruits growing on the hedge, insect, and larvae eaters and even birds of prey will almost certainly check out your hedge too.

A mixed Bird-Friendly Native Hedgerow should certainly have plenty (at least 50%) of those thorny native shrubs we mentioned, the native Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and Blackthorn or Sloe (Prunus spinosa) would both be ideal, not least because both will also provide a bounty of fruits as well as formidable thorns. However, both are deciduous and so become completely sparse by mid-winter.

Just when a little leaf cover during the shortest days would surely be welcomed by field fares, redwings, robins, and others that choose not to venture south when the temperature drops. Easily arranged by adding the occasional leaf retaining Beech (Fagus sylvatica) or Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) when you plant. For some evergreen cover try adding a few of our native Holly (Ilex aquifolium) or even the odd Yew (Taxus baccata). Like the rest of the plant, the bright red fruits or arils are poisonous to humans and many animals alike, yet to feathered friends these are a particular treat. And they will appreciate the dense bushy growth for nesting.

As for the rest of the gold standard hedge, well it’s not possible to name any native shrubs that won’t be suitable, more a case of highlighting a few particular favourites!  Our native common alder (Alnus glutinosa) is sought out by many (such as the goldfinch) for its seed cones. The native Spindle Berry (Euonymus europaeus) will be fiercely defended by the territorial robin, sometimes even referred to as ‘Robins Bread’. The nuts of the native Hazel (Corylus avellana) will be hoovered up as fast as they fall by all kinds of our native birds and the colourful red hips of Dog Rose (Rosa canina) will attract blackbirds, redwings and waxwings. The clusters of dark berries on the Common Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) and the aptly named Bird Cherry (Prunus padus) are both popular with robins and thrushes. All these native species are ideal to be planted in smaller quantities in your bird friendly hedge to complete the picture.

We should at this point mention cutting your hedge, if it’s trimmed too regularly then it will look immaculate, but it won’t produce many fruits and berries and so will not be a very good food source.

Most of the plants we recommend above will flower and fruit on the branches that grew the previous year, so if you want your hedge to be ‘loaded’ – then don’t trim it every year. Trim one side the first year, this will grow new shoots that will flower and fruit the second year. In this second year the other side can be trimmed, and that side will fruit in the third year….and so on. Basically, just alternate your hedge cutting so that you always have some branches that will grow fruits and seeds.

Best individual hedges.

As we have said already, any hedge will provide welcome shelter and potential nesting sites. But if you want a single-species hedge that makes a great food source – here are some of the best.

Pyracantha – A firethorn hedge will make your garden very popular with birds when the berries become colourful later in the season, especially the ones with red berries!

Berberis – Berberis darwinii and B.thunbergii varieties are first class bee plants and a nectar source for Moths and Butterflies while providing shelter for many caterpillars. The Barberries are popular with Thrushes, Waxwings and Blackbirds.

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Gorse – Ulex europaeus. This spikey native can be in flower almost all year making it particularly valuable to Bees coming out of hibernation when little else is available. It is also the primary food source for the Green Hairstreak and Silver Studded Blue butterflies. This is an important nesting plant too for Warblers, Stonechats, Linnets and Yellowhammers.

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Cherry Laurels – Prunus laurocerasus varieties. If you can allow the plants to flower, they will be very attractive to bees, the cherry fruits will make a welcome meal for hungry birds later in the year.

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