Gardening for the Birds: How to Create a Bird-Friendly Garden by George Adams

I got a copy of this book for review through NetGalley a while back and read half of it.  I did not get to finish it before the book came out so I bought a copy for my personal shelves.  It was worth every penny.  Here's the Goodreads blurb and the cover:

You may already have a bird feeder in your yard, but you can attract a far wider range of species, and they will stay longer, if you create a bird-friendly landscape. Gardening for the Birds shows you how.

With the right native plants, arranged to mimic natural ecosystems, you will provide birds with food, water, shelter, and nesting places. Instead of just visiting your garden to snack, birds will call it home.

With hundreds of native plants, extensive seasonal bloom and fruiting charts, and the techniques for creating a balanced ecosystem, this book helps you turn any space—from a small, urban terrace to a large suburban yard—into a home for a fascinating variety of birds. Close-up profiles of birds from across all regions of North America teach you their nesting, breeding, and feeding habits.

Birding and gardening are natural companions: let this rich compendium help you make your garden a sanctuary for the local bird population and yourself!

If you want to bring birds to your yard, you can do so much more than just hang a few feeders.  This book will explain all of the ways that you can entice birds into your yard and really, you could extrapolate that to any animals.  You want to provide for the needs of the bird or animal to get them to frequent your yard.  You can do this by incorporating native plants into your gardens and by offering water sources for drinking and bathing.  Having trees available for nesting in your yard is another way that you can bring in the birds.  The best part of this book is that it explains how to make your yard inviting to birds whether you only have an urban terrace or you have tons of yard space out in the sticks.  Everyone and anyone can read and use this book.  I also found it really helpful that the book offered a section of profiles of birds from all regions so that you could see what birds could be in your area and what their needs are.  It is almost two books in one.  AND you don't have to be a bird watcher to really understand and use it.  This is one of the best non-fiction books I've read this year!

You can click here to find this book on Goodreads.  I give Gardening for the Birds 4 Fairies for a super useful addition to my home library.