In landscaping the garden with both native and non-native shrubs and trees, the couple has learned that various plants attract different species of birds. We have the native willows which provide food for warblers. They love the bugs and stuff off willows. We have some ceanothus which birds like, more bugs and the flowers too. We really are not too anti-bug, because the birds do get to eat them and they keep bug populations down in a garden.
Conifers are wonderful for attracting birds like evening grosbeaks.
They like spruce. In addition to providing natural food sources for the birds, the couple also has platform feeders scattered throughout the yard, each blanketed with seed, especially black sunflower. Cockle built the feeders out of discarded slabs of redwood and roughhewn fence posts. A problem associated with a seed feeder platform is that band-tailed pigeons tend to come in droves and hog all the food, forcing other birds away. Cockle remedied the problem two ways.