Those who enjoy watching birds in their back yards can attract more birds by planting trees or shrubs that will provide food and shelter for them. Several of Maine’s native trees provide winter food and nest sites for birds. Birch seed catkins stay on the tree into the winter and are eaten by chickadees, finches and other birds.

Maple, ash, basswood and beech trees produce seeds that appeal to a variety of birds, including sparrows and nuthatches. With their abundance of fleshy fruit, wild cherry trees attract more than 80 different bird species. Mountain ash trees produce an abundance of colorful orange berries that seem to be especially attractive to flocks of cedar waxwings.

In addition to producing nuts and fruit, these tree species may harbor insects in the bark that are eaten by warblers and woodpeckers.

Native conifer trees are also important sources of food and shelter for birds.

Balsam fir, spruce, hemlock, white cedar and pine offer summer nesting sites and shelter from winter winds. These conifers produce seeds eaten by many birds, including finches, grosbeaks, pine siskins, nuthatches and chickadees.

Several native shrubs produce fruit that is both ornamental and attractive to birds.

Elderberry has showy clusters of creamy white flowers in early summer, followed by juicy black fruit in early fall, which appeals to dozens of bird species.

Several species of native dogwood with attractive landscape qualities, such as red-osier dogwood, round-leaved dogwood and pagoda dogwood, make good backyard plants attractive to birds.

In autumn, the shrubs produce bluish-white berries that appeal to many bird species.

The viburnums are a group of native shrubs that have clusters of small white flowers in spring, followed by colorful fall berries.

Some of the best viburnums for landscape planting include cranberry viburnum, which has clusters of large red berries in the fall; northern arrowwood, with clusters of dark blue berries in autumn; and wild raisin with its clusters of small fruit that are initially pink but turn blue-black when ripe.

Finally, winterberry is a beautiful native shrub that produces large numbers of bright red berries that stay on the plant until midwinter, providing food for many birds including the flicker, catbird and white-throated sparrow.

Readers who would like to know more about these trees and shrubs should visit www.hort.uconn.edu/plants, which has excellent photos as well as plant descriptions.