Plan now for bird-friendly habitat all year

Winter is a good time to plan to make your garden bird-friendly all year long. It takes more than feeders, birdhouses, a birdbath and some flowers. Birds need a complete habitat that includes food, shelter, nesting areas and perching spots.

A good bird garden tends to have a natural look. Provide naturalistic planting areas at different levels above the ground to attract different kinds of birds. Some birds prefer the canopy of tall trees, while others perch in the understory trees and shrubs.

Bird species vary in their preferences and requirements for nesting, eating and shelter. Try to create as much variety as possible in your backyard refuge to attract a larger variety of birds. Even open areas of soil can be beneficial by providing an area for birds to take a dust bath.

Select plants to provide food for birds all through the year, such as fruits that ripen in different seasons. For example, serviceberries provide spring-ripening fruit, red-twig dogwood fruits ripen in summer and hawthorns and crabapples provide fruit in fall and winter.

Perennials such as purple coneflower and grasses such as a prairie dropseed provide seeds for a food source. Sunflowers are quick-growing annual flowers whose seeds attract birds. Nectar-producing plants such as penstemon, Mexican bush sage and columbine are attractive to hummingbirds.

Include a mix of evergreens in your planting to provide year-round shelter for the birds. When it is safe and aesthetically possible, leave some dead branches on living trees to provide zones for the birds to perch on. Prune any dead branches that are safety hazards.

If you feed birds in your garden, prevent your dog from eating the fallen birdseed. Although most dogs can pass small amounts of birdseed, it still can cause problems.

When the seeds ferment in the dog's stomach, the gas that results can cause the stomach to bloat so much that it twists on itself. This is a life-threatening condition that requires immediate emergency veterinary attention.

Along with the birdseed, the dog may ingest bird droppings that can contain salmonella bacteria. Salmonella can cause severe digestive upset with lots of vomiting and diarrhea that can be fatal in very young or old dogs. The salmonella bacteria can also be passed on to you.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.