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Florida Native Plants for Bird-Friendly Gardens
Want to attract more birds to your yard? It’s simple: plant native or naturalized plants, provide water, and create safe spaces. Florida’s native plants are perfectly adapted to support our feathered friends year-round with the right food, shelter, and nesting sites.
The Three Essentials Birds Need
Quality Food: Native fruits, seeds, nectar, and the insects that feed on native plants.
Fresh Water: A birdbath or shallow fountain with clean water.
Safe Cover: Dense shrubs, brush piles, and trees provide protection from predators and weather.
What Do Birds Eat? Different species have different diets:
Frugivores eat fruit (e.g., mockingbirds, waxwings)
Insectivores eat insects (e.g., warblers, flycatchers)
The best way to meet their needs? Plant native species that produce berries, nectar, and host insects. These native plants provide fruits, nectar, seeds, and shelter that support birds year-round:
Fruit & Berry Producers
Beauty-berry
Blueberry
Blackberry
Chickasaw Plum
Mulberry
Sea-grape
Elderberry
Wax Myrtle
Wild Coffee
Hollies
Simpson’s Stopper
Mulberry
Loquat tree
Pawpaw
Prickly-pear Cactus
Crabapple.
Wildflowers & Nectar Plants (few favorites)
Firebush
Scarlet Salvia
Coral Honeysuckle
Passion Flower
Golden Dewdrop
Trees & Shrubs
Sabal Palm (Florida’s state tree – loved by robins and mockingbirds)
Pawpaw
Walter's Viburnum
Bugs Are Bird Food, Too!
Insects, worms, lizards, and amphibians provide vital protein.
You can attract these naturally by:
Leaving snags (standing dead trees 15’) for woodpeckers, owls, and other hunters.
Creating brush piles offer shelter for insects and for small birds like wrens and warblers.
If you must remove a tree, consider leaving a 10–15 foot stump as a wildlife perch and habitat.
Avoid These Invasive Plants, These species may seem attractive to birds, but they disrupt local ecosystems and support fewer insects:
Brazilian Pepper
Nandina
Coral Ardisia
Asparagus Fern
Surinam Cherry
Kalanchoe daigremontiana (mother of a thousands)
Chinese tallow
Mimosa tree
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