Plant Native Vines for Birds to Nest In

We don’t often think of vines as a place for birds to nest. Yet some of our favorite songbirds are looking for exactly the kind of plant tangle a native vine can offer when building their nest.

It's easier to see nests hidden in vines when it's not the growing season - like this cardinal nest in a tangle of native wisteria growing on a trellis.

We also imagine bird nests high up in trees, but many birds can typically nest anywhere from two to ten feet off the ground in small trees, shrubs, and vines. In the South this includes Eastern towhees, brown thrashers, Carolina wrens, catbirds, mockingbirds, American goldfinches, and cardinals.

The more nesting habitat support we can have in our yard, the more baby birds we'll see - like this cute little Eastern towhee who was born somewhere in or around my rewilded yard.

From an ornamental gardening perspective vines are a background feature as a low maintenance, fast growing, and attractive way to cover walls or fences and offer shade or privacy. Yet vines can do so much more than look pretty and serve our purposes. I use native vines to work a little more wildlife habitat support into my rewilded yard wherever I can.

In addition to looking gorgeous on my 120 year old tuliptree, this crossvine is also a source of nectar for native bees and hummingbirds; pollen for pollinators; a host plant for moths; and a nesting and shelter site for wildlife including birds, tree frogs, and even squirrels!

The multiple benefits of native vines include having flowers with nectar and pollen for pollinators; hosting butterfly and moth caterpillars and other insects; and providing safe places for wildlife to seek cover from predators and shelter from the elements. Vines such as Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) also make a habitat rich groundcover. In the South some native vines start blooming in early spring just in time to offer nectar for the much-anticipated return of the ruby-throated hummingbirds towards the end of March (now!). This includes Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), crossvine (Bignonia capreolata), and coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens).

This is just a handful of native vines in the Piedmont ecoregion - which includes metro Atlanta.

Every native vine in my yard is intentional. I had a somewhat wonky arbor trellis I found at a garage sale that a Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens) was scrambling up. Half the trellis was covered, and I was thinking of adding another vine to join it from the other side. The flowers are the first to bloom each spring for early native bees. During a recent storm, the trellis just crumpled. This was on me because I didn’t support the trellis when I installed it – I don’t like to put concrete in my soil, so I often use rebar to support structures but in this case I just didn’t take the time.

This red mason bee (I think!) was one of many buzzing around the Carolina jessamine days before the trellis it was on collapsed.

Last year a cardinal built a nest about four feet off the ground in the densest part of the Carolina jessamine.

Once nesting season was over I pulled aside the Carolina jessamine to get a better look at the nest that a cardinal had built in it earlier in the year.

Cardinals seem to like to build nests in vines – a few years ago I first saw one nesting at eye level in native Wisteria (Wisteria frutescens) on a trellis in the middle of a friend’s rewilded yard and I’ve since seen other cardinal nests in vines.

This darling mother cardinal was sitting steady in a nest at eye level (and I'm short!) in a friend's American wisteria vine on a trellis.

The loss of my Carolina jessamine trellis gave me an opportunity to use a different structure to support it. I bought a sturdy obelisk and roughly stuffed the vine into it, so the entire middle was as dense as the spot where the nest had been. This is an example of the kind of habitat gardening decisions that might be made to increase function and differs from what might be suggested from a horticultural perspective which would encourage a larger structure or severely pruning the vine.

As the Carolina jessamine starts spilling out of the obelisk trellis it will look more natural in the landscape.

The vine will adjust and be fine with this less than ideal treatment, but hopefully, this year another nest will be built in this safe and cozy little space I've created!

Fingers crossed a bird finds this spot!

Adding support for bird habitat can help make us feel like we’re doing something to counterbalance the alarming 30% bird population decline in just the last 50 years, with some species such as common grackles declining even more. Top reasons for the loss are habitat loss and degradation and pesticide use.

Common grackles are not that common when they're in Atlanta for the winter. When I see them, they're traveling with one of the daily flocks of red-winged blackbirds that visit my rewilded yard. Grackles have had a steep population decline in recent decades.

In Atlanta over 84% of our famous and rapidly disappearing tree canopy is on land zoned residential so adding wildlife habitat support where we can is not optional.

In addition to speculative developers clear cutting residential lots for McMansions, Atlanta's tree canopy is disappearing tree by tree when homeowners removed trees for a variety of reasons and rarely replace them.

An obelisk trellis is a good choice for any size yard – it uses a relatively small amount of vertical space to provide a possible nesting sight. I’m now thinking of doing the same with one of the native coral honeysuckle vines (lonicera sempervirens) growing on regular trellises that are starting to bend from the weight of the vines on them. I’ve also found nests inside them.

The life my coral honeysuckle supports is astounding!

Native vines can be generous with their growth – but reconsider the urge to prune them in the winter or late spring for aesthetics unless they need to be pruned for a practical reason. Sometimes pruning is necessary and needs to be done. I’ve kept a native crossvine (Bignonia capreolata) pruned in the front of our mailbox so there's no vines or insects to bother our mail carrier. Yet all year I maintain a nice, thick tangle of this brilliantly blooming and habitat friendly vine on the back half of the mailbox.

The crossvine on my mailbox is decades old yet kept in check so it can continue to offer additional habitat support. Our mailbox gargoyle watches over the mail!

I’ve been mindful to only prune in the fall after nesting season after I found a nest a couple years ago.

It's hard to see - but the arrow is pointing to a small nest I found in the vines!

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