Attracting Birds and Butterflies: How to Plant a Backyard Habitat to Attract Winged Wildlife

There is no mystery to creating a garden that attracts birds and butterflies, Ellis (How to Prune Trees and Shrubs), publications director for the American Horticultural Society, asserts in her comprehensive volume—it’s simply a matter of facilitating the food, water, shelter, and security any animal needs to flourish. In the book’s first section, “Welcoming Winged Wildlife,” she shows how to translate these basic features into “wildlife-friendly yards and gardens... filled with flowers from spring to frost, brilliant berries, and glistening water—along with dazzling birds and butterflies.” The second section, “Creating a Bird Garden,” describes using nest boxes, shrubs, brambles, grasses, and vines to make an inviting space for roosting or nesting. The next, “Planting for Hummingbirds,” covers eclectic horticultural possibilities, urging the planting of such flowers as foxgloves, columbines, snapdragons, and hollyhocks. The final section, “Attracting Butterflies,” highlights the milkweed plants, which will attract, in addition to monarchs, species that include “painted ladies, viceroys, skippers, and question marks.” Spanning horticulture, ornithology, and lepidopterology, Ellis’s encouraging primer will help even the most modest gardener create a lively and colorful habitat for winged creatures. (Feb.)