Plant native grasses such as little bluestem. They hold their seeds throughout the fall and much of the winter, and birds eat them eagerly. Forget about purely ornamental ones (and all nonnative plants).

At the local nurseries, all the native grasses that are sold would be labeled ornamental. Anything planted for landscape effect would be labelled ornamental. So if they sell native grasses, and they do sell some of them, those would be called ornamental also.

They have tons of fescue types. However, I am not looking for "Blue" fescue but something with seed heads that I think birds would eat.

I have not seen either big or little bluestem, or something like side oats gamma. They do have Switchgrass.

Am I correct in assuming Miscanthus is useless for my purpose????

If you're interested, here's a local (to me) native plant nursery that has a selection of natives - bottlebrush, little blue stem, various native switch grasses, indian grass, and a few native sedges:
WILD EARTH Native Plant Nursery
PO Box 7258
Freehold NJ 07728
(732) 308-9777

I planted a few miscanthus last year ("little bunny" if I remember correctly) and they get seedheads that the goldfinches were interested in. Can't really judge by the goldfinches, though, they seem to investigate just about every plant in the garden.

Try contacting a NWF Habitat Steward in your area. They should have lists of native plants which benefit wildlife and may be able to tell you where to find them.

The link below will direct you to the nearest National Wildlife Federation office, they'll hook you up with a steward.

Here is a link that might be useful: Find a Habitat Steward

So far I have planted two miscanthus that I already had. I have found that none of my local nurseries carry little bluestem, one of the grasses I would like.

So far, I find the Sporobolus species recomended for birds, especially cryptandrus, which is commonly called Sand Dropseed and Heterolepis, which is commonly called Prairie Dropseed. Switchgrass and Indiangrass also made my bird attracting list because birds are supposed to eat the seedheads.

I have been doing some reseach but I am sure there are many more grasses that I am unaware of.

Wild Earth, mentioned above, is an excellent and reputable native plant nursery. You can also order from Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin. In either case, grass plants should be planted in spring, not in fall. Fall transplanting will result in a high mortality rate.

Hi,
I checked out Prairie Nursery that was mentioned above, and it's a great site, with lots of photos and info. They sell big and little bluestem, and lots of other stuff, so be sure to check it out.
Elaine......thanks for the heads up on not planting the grass in the fall. I think I'll order next spring.

My grasses are going to have to wait until the Spring also. I just have done too much this year already and have run out of steam!

Praire Nursery looks great. I sent for the Catalog.

Prairie Nursery is a great site, I ordered from them this year. One of the plants I got is Little Bluestem. It is still pretty small, only about 6" high right now but it will be worth the wait for it to grow.

Newyorkrita,
Do you think the catalogue would have more in it than their website? I'm going to order their big bluestem next spring.
I can certainly relate to running out of steam! I'm glad I live where there's winter......it gives me a chance to recupe!!

The Catalog has about 44 pages. Most of it is lists of the plants and seeds they carry with no pictures or information. The website has the nice links with pictures of most of the plants. They do have stuff I don't normally see.

I wish we had a mild winter with just some freeze for maybe a month and then back to spring! But thats not the way it worked. I just took on too much this year. Started my garden improvements in April and just kept going and going and going and going.........

Now I am waiting on the last of my mail order shrubs that are to be shipped in October and I am done for this year. Give me some time cooped up in the house in Winter and I will be chomping for the spring planting season. Still, everything turned out so nicely that I am super pleased. Lots of improvements to bring more butterflies, honeybees, Hummingbirds and backyard birds into the garden.

Learned alot since my original post here. Now know I need all native grasses, mostly warm season grasses but not all so. I think my newly planted Miscanthus (planted last summer) is really stunning but those will be my last because I don't think they are usefull in attracting or feeding backyard birds.

I ordered 'Oahe' Intermediate Wheat Grass from Oikos Tree Corps (along with lots of mostly shrubs). They highly recommend it as wild bird food and cover and it is a perennial grass.

If anyone has any experience with the Intermediate Wheat Grass, I would really like to hear about it.

Still deciding on my warm season grasses to order although I did order Little Bluestem seeds variety 'Blaze'. I am hoping this one is not too floppy.

Q And Z Nursery in Rochelle, Illinois also has a nice selection of prairie plants including the aforementioned bluestem. They have also have an exceptional selection of hostas. They have a website at qandznursery.com. Cosmos, echinacea, jerusalem artichokes, asters, thistles and butterfly bushes also have attractive seed heads that should be left til spring.

I will probably make some people mad with this statement.....but it would be great to grow these plants for the birds, and try to cut down on all the birdseed that we buy (I'm just as guilty as the next!). I try to think in terms of what would be best for nature. I know that my feeding the birds probably isn't the most "hands off" approach, but I love seeing them so much. But.....if we planted alot of these natural bird-feeding plants, we could back off of the stuff we buy. Thanks for this thread.....it has reminded me that there are more natural ways of feeding the birds.

No problem doing both feeding the birds with backyard feeders and at the same time planting native grasses for the seeds. Something I never thought of before was that not only do the native warm season grasses supply the birds with seeds come fall and winter but many of them are host plants to butterflies, namely skippers. So butterflies would be attracted and birds would most likely hang out and find some of the caterpillars to eat.

I was out at the nursery yesterday buying seed packets and found they had all sorts of ones of ornamental grasses. So, of course, I had to get some. I think I will do them in containers. This way the annual grasses can just be pretty and I don't have to be concerned with them seeding themselves all over the place. And the perennial grases need to grow and get established, would get lost in my garden otherwise.

I bought Foxtail millet, I know thats good for feeding the birds. I also got annual little quaking grass. Its really lovely but I have no idea if birds like it. Then Blue gamma, native so most likely birds go for the seeds.

Then I picked up Red Spire Pearl Grass (Melica trannilvanica) and Large Blue Hairgrass (Koeleria glauca) both perennial but thats all I know about them. Picked them up because of the pictures on the seed packets. They look like interesting grasses with lovely seedheads. Red Spire has red seed spikes, looks really great. Hope these turn out to have bird appeal.

It is kind of messy looking but another thing to do to help through the winter is not to mow. Let the grass go until spring and then mow them all down. That way the birds have a natural food through winter as long as the seed lasts. Which also means that you don't have to traipse out in the cold and wet to fill the feeder.
I have an area in front of my house that I am trying to get more wildflowers/grasses to grow. I only mow it a few times a year. Early February, first of July, maybe once or twice more before a final mowing in October or November. The grass has plenty of time to grow in central Texas before winter sets in for real.
Mike

So far I have 5 small clumps of Indiangrass, six clumps of Indian Rice Grass (cool season) and lots of small clumps of Prairie Dropseed. Also 4 clumps of Little Bluestem, variety Blaze. All were mail order. Plus I was lucky enough to find some larger clumps of little Bluestem variety The Blues locally so I got them also. I bought 4 gorgous Elijah Blue Fescue at the local Home Depot for $3.00 apiece but am unsure if the birds like them.I also have 4 Miscanthus planted from last year, my first ornimental grasses. That was before I realized I should have more native grasses for the birds but I love the looks of Miscantus so they are staying.

My small Prairie Dropseed clumps have really taken off. All my Little Bluestem is planted and I also found a really large gorgeous clump of Switchgrass that I have recently planted. I water the Indian rice grass alot but it is the only one not growing. Anyway, a good start to my native grasses.

Switchgrass is blooming now. Looks lovely. I was looking at the displays of the switchgrass blooming at the nursery and thought it looked really great too.

What birds eat the seedheads of the switchgrass?

Afew of the prairie dropseed clumps bloomed, not most, as I suspect they were too small this year. Grown like crazy though. Also the little bluestem bloomed. I have never noticed any birds in the Switchgrass, which has been blooming for a long time now. Maybe in the fall.

I did see some Sparrow like birds eating the seeds off the Myscanthus clumps in full bloom right now. But they seem to prefer other grasses, especially the annual millets I have growing around the veggie garden.

The tall grasses like the Myscanthus and Switch Grass look particularily good now in the garden. And they have all Fall and Winter Long. This snow we keep having doesn't do anything to pack the tall grass seed heads down, they are as upright as ever. The shorter grasses such as the Northern Sea Oats, Little Bluestem and Praire Dropseed are mostly burried under the snow.

Myscanthus and Prairie Dropseed starting to green up. Don't see anything yet on the Switchgrass and Little Bluestem.

You can also find LOTS of native grasses at Ion Exchange in Iowa (see link below). I ordered from them for the first time this year. You can get plugs of grasses and perennials for just $0.75 each! So, if you are patient about their size, it is a great deal, especially if you have a large area to cover (like me!). They came well-packed and healthy. They also have seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ion Exchange

Just picked up another Switchgrass, 'Shenendoah' for the bird garden.

I grew some Foxtail Millet this summer and was quite pleased with the lovely seed heads which do grow in a plume looking like a foxtail. The seeds are all gone now, having been eaten in the fall by Songsparrows and other small birds.

The perennial grasses are starting to green up. My favorite is Switchgrass which is just stunning in my yard.

I have been studying and more recently ordering trees, and bushes next flowers and grasses for a small bird sanctuary at the back of my yard. National Audubon's The Bird Garden by Stephen Kress was a book given to me some years back by my daughter. Excellent resource as it divides up the areas of the US and what birds can be attracted there by what plants. Then its the locating them :) One idea they offer is to string a wire from one post to another and the birds will rest and drop seeds all scarified and with their own bit of fertilizer. In this way you can get some plants of what your local birds already dine on. When I had two 80+ feet tall multitrunked silver maples removed last year I was at a loss what to replace them with. Then while I was recovering from swine flu I piled a bunch of books into bed with me and a bird sanctuary was born. This forum has some years behind it but it was nice to find. Perhaps some others will join in. Happy bird gardening!

We're trying to build a habitat here in a school court yard that would benefit birds but especially ducks. We end up having a duck nest every year so we want to plant things that will be able to give them good cover and some seeds as well. All the natives mentioned sound good. I would welcome any suggestions
Joann

There are a few species of birds who use only miscanthus coarse grass blades to form the main wall of their nest. FYI.