Every morning, Allie Chamot wakes up and heads out to her Chevy Chase garden. “I love seeing the different colors that come into the space,” she says. Chickadees and wrens nest there, and she particularly enjoys the white-throated sparrow’s mellifluous song.
But this vibrant garden brimming with wildlife used to look a lot different. When Chamot and her husband, Jorge, moved from New York City in 2018, she thought their new house “had this beautiful landscaped yard with many trees.” Later, however, a friend who works for New York’s parks department visited and identified numerous invasive species—including Bradford pear trees, nandina and English ivy—that don’t support birds and pollinators, and often edge out much-needed native plants.
“When I learned I had the opportunity to help wildlife outside my home, my game was transformed,” Chamot says. She removed the invasive plants and replaced them with native shrubs and perennials that provide nectar, seeds, berries and a habitat for caterpillars. She started reading books, such as University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy’s Nature’s Best Hope, to understand the importance of providing a welcoming habitat for birds and pollinators.
Chamot also volunteered to remove invasive species elsewhere with Nature Forward, a Chevy Chase nonprofit that aims to connect residents with the natural riches around them. Now Chamot works there part time as a naturalist ambassador, sharing how anyone with a yard or planter can boost local bird populations. Her hands-on advocacy also enriches the couple’s daughters, ages 3 and 6. “It’s been amazing to see how open they are to understanding that wildlife is also meant to be in these shared spaces.”
Since 1970, the U.S. and Canadian bird population has plummeted by nearly 3 billion birds, according to a 2019 study led by Cornell University. We’ve lost more than one of every four birds that formerly dotted our skies. While multiple factors have contributed to this decline, the main reason is the loss of habitats, the study says. As wild areas are developed, birds can’t find supportive spaces in which to reproduce.
Montgomery County residents can create welcoming habitats by ensuring birds have shelter, food and water. Choosing native plants over popular nonnative plants (burning bush, leatherleaf mahonia, butterfly bush, privet) can provide these necessities. Yards with mainly nonnative plants are basically “food deserts” for native insects—and thus for birds—says a 2018 study by Tallamy and others that monitored the reproduction and survival of Carolina chickadees within residential yards across the Washington, D.C., region. Their conclusion: To better support local and migratory birds, residents should aim for 70% of their plants to be native species, including trees, shrubs, perennials and groundcover.
“Migratory birds need places to stop and refuel,” says Alice Sturm, the restoration director for Nature Forward. “Every single year that they’re migrating, there are fewer safe places to do that.” Maryland is part of the Atlantic Flyway, a major migratory path for millions of birds in the spring and fall.
Tallamy’s work inspired the Homegrown National Park movement, which encourages people to reenvision their spaces as contributing to wildlife havens and corridors. He focuses on “keystone species”—oaks, serviceberry, holly, sunflowers, asters and goldenrod—that support the largest numbers of insects. Without these plants, vital food webs could fail, Tallamy says.
As a naturalist ambassador, Chamot finds that people mistakenly assume they need a green thumb to grow native plants. While native plants may require a little babying during the first year or in drought conditions, they have evolved to thrive here. Sturm says some people don’t realize that native plant gardens can be “beautiful and aesthetic” while also welcoming wildlife. To help visitors envision the myriad possibilities, one section of Nature Forward’s Woodend headquarters “demonstrates the types of habitats you can create, the types of gardens and landscaping you can make with native plants for different aesthetics,” says Sturm, a licensed landscape architect.
Sturm suggests that homeowners expand their “plant palette” to include bird-supporting blooms that flower in different seasons, such as blue star (spring), multitoned lobelia (late spring), sunflowers (summer), and colorful asters and goldenrod (fall). “We’re lucky enough to live in a place that has four distinct seasons,” she says. “That is such an opportunity to see different colors” and provide sustenance for birds and insects year-round.
Francesca Grifo realized about 10 years ago that her grass lawn wasn’t good for the birds she loved to observe. She says she “took a very normal 10,000-square-foot suburban lot [in the Glen Mar Park neighborhood of Bethesda] and completely transformed it with native plants” to provide habitat, shelter and food. But, she cautions, “you can’t do it all at once, and you can’t do it in one season.” Grifo is now a state director of the Montgomery Bird Club and sees 18 bird species—from woodpeckers to goldfinches to nuthatches—nest in her yard, and she regularly spies hawks and hears owls.
“My favorite thing is in the spring when [the baby birds] are fledging and you have these silly little clumsy babies stumbling around your yard,” Grifo says. She also enjoys the welcome songs of 15 species of warblers that migrate through her yard.
While the initial inclination may be to remove any tree or plant that isn’t native, Sturm recommends leaving mature trees that may provide a better habitat than a newly planted shrub. She advises replacing dead trees, shrubs and perennials with native plants, and adding them by taking out portions of lawn or expanding understory plantings.
Working from his Bethesda home in the Wood Acres neighborhood during the pandemic, Calvin Schnure became curious about the birdcalls he heard. He turned to Cornell’s Merlin Bird ID app to identify them and took online classes. He is now an enthusiastic birder and photographer (see his photos of a Cooper’s hawk left).
“I’ve stopped using any pesticides or insecticides,” Schnure says. “I’ve provided food, and I’ve stopped killing their food.” He plans to remove much of the nonnative lawn grass and add native plants. “We’ve moved into their living space. Our backyard is really their home.”
While mature birds subsist on seeds, berries and other foods, 96% of terrestrial North American birds feed their chicks insects—mainly caterpillars, the larval state of moths and butterflies that are fat-and-protein-rich morsels. Chickadee parents need to gather 390 to 570 caterpillars per day to support a clutch of four to six chickadees, Tallamy’s research has found. With more than 16 days from hatching to fledging, that adds up to between 6,000 and 9,000 caterpillars per clutch, Tallamy says.
“Sometimes people say, ‘I want to garden for birds, but I don’t want to garden for bugs,’ ” Sturm says. “You have to be gardening for insect populations because that’s what birds are eating and feeding their young.” At least 310 North American bird species consume caterpillars to survive, according to Tallamy’s study.
When they hear “insect,” though, many people think of pests, such as mosquitoes, and that has led to widespread insecticide spraying in suburban areas. Unfortunately, such sprays can’t target only one species, despite advertising claims: “There is no way for companies to spray these broad-spectrum insecticides in your yard without also killing other insects they come in contact with, including bees, butterflies, caterpillars, ladybugs, dragonflies and other beneficial insects,” David Mizejewski and David Weber wrote in a 2022 National Wildlife Federation blog post.
A thriving ecosystem that welcomes birds and other mosquito consumers will best control their levels. Purple martins, yellow warblers, hummingbirds, bats and dragonflies all dine heartily on mosquitoes. Sturm and Tallamy recommend using Bti (Bacillus thuringiensis isrealensis) mosquito dunks, which are toxic to mosquito larvae laid in standing water. Schnure also dumps standing water so they can’t breed. Dense English ivy is also attractive to mosquitoes, another reason to eliminate it. Birders also recommend avoiding using any rat poison, indoors or out, because birds may consume the poisoned rodents and die.
Since moving into their Garrett Park home in 2011, Leila Holtsman and her husband Dave Rubenstein wanted to “create a birding haven” with native evergreen ground cover and layers of deciduous plants. That was a tall order because their yard was a former “weed-covered construction dumping ground,” Holtsman says. The yard had too much calcium and magnesium and not enough phosphorous, she says. However, she didn’t test the soil until years after she started planting, which she now regrets. While native plants thrive in conditions that match their needs, many grow better if compost is added when they are planted.
Grifo also recommends creating layers of habitat: “You want to have big trees, small trees, shrubs, ground covers and vines because that’s what creates the habitat complexity and the places where birds can hang out, eat and—if all goes well—have baby birds.” The Montgomery Bird Club offers classes and a newsletter for guidance.
“It’s essential to have some place where the birds can duck into,” Rubenstein says. They’ve noticed the birds particularly love their leafy native cherry tree and a pine tree. To attract birds, Rubenstein also supplies winter feeders, places to perch and two water sources, one with running water. During a two-day period last winter, all six species of locally residing woodpeckers visited their yard.
They also enjoy hearing birds. “One morning, we were woken up by the yellow-bellied sapsucker,” Holtsman says.
How you handle your summer and fall landscaping can impact local insect and bird populations, Sturm says. Many insects overwinter or lay eggs in fallen leaves, plant stalks or stems and brush piles. To protect the eggs, leave the leaves by raking at least some under shrubs and trees or over perennials, and avoid deadheading plants (cutting off the spent blooms or seed heads). “Summer blooming plants—wild bergamot, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susans—all of those seeds are an amazing resource for birds. It’s like a grow your own bird feeder,” Sturm says. If you use store-bought feeders, be sure to clean them often to prevent the spread of disease or bacteria. In the winter, she stocks her feeders with dried mealworms, which are nutrient dense and attract songbirds.
Tallamy and other experts recommend making your outdoor lighting more bird-friendly by using warm spectrum lighting that’s shielded and directed downward. Bright upward lighting may disorient nocturnal and migrating birds.
“Birding is the most delightful stress reliever,” Grifo says. “A reminder that there’s a whole lovely planet out there.” In fact, birding can result in “higher gains in subjective well-being and more reduction in distress than more generic nature exposure, such as walks,” according to a 2024 North Carolina State University study.
Chamot finds that joy every day in her garden. “It’s seeing life like I’ve never seen it before and knowing that I put [these native plants] in the ground. I’m making a small difference in my small piece of land when I can’t control other things that are happening elsewhere.”
Amy Brecount White replaced most of her Arlington lawn with native plants where insects and birds can find welcoming habitats.
This appears in the May/June 2025 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
