Garden Plan to Attract Wisconsin Songbirds

There are a few things that are so beautiful like waking up to a beautiful songbird on your bedroom window sill. If you want to enjoy them yourself, there is no need to keep them trapped in a cage — just plant the native plants they thrive on!

This guide features regional native plants for the Great Lakes that are highly attractive to our native songbirds and are well-suited to small-scale plantings in gardens, on business and school campuses, in urban greenspaces and farm field borders.

In planning your garden, be sure to have something blooming all season so there is always a food source for songbirds.

See the KEY at the bottom for details on the 'Soil' and 'Moisture' codes.

Bloom	Common Name	Scientific Name	Color	Height	Light	Soil	Moisture
EARLY	Columbine	Aquilegia canadensis	Red, Yellow	1-3'		L,S	D,M
	Downy Phlox	Phlox pilosa	Pink	1-2'		L,S	D,M,Mo
MID	Black-eyed Susan	Rudbeckia hirta	Yellow	1-3'		L,S,C	D,M,Mo
	Blue False Indigo	Baptisia australis	Blue	3-4'		L	D,M
	Pale Purple Coneflower	Echinacea pallida	Purple	3-5'		L,S,C	D,M
	Purple Coneflower	Echinacea purpurea	Blue	3-5'		L,S,C	D,M
	Smooth Penstemon	Penstemon digitalis	White	2-3'		L,S	M,Mo
MID-LATE	Bergamot	Mondarda fistulosa	Purpl	4'		L,S,C	D,M,O
	Cup Plant	Silphium perfoliatum	Yellow	3-10'		L,S,C	M,Mo,W
	Dense Blazingstar	Liatris spicata	Pink, Purple	3-5'		D,L,S	M,Mo
	Prairie Dropseed	Sporobolus heterolepsis	White	2-4'		L,C,S	M
	Stiff Goldenrod	Solidago rigida	Yellow	3-5'		L,C,S	D,M
	Yellow Coneflower	Ratibida pinnata	Yellow	3-6'		C,L,S	D,M,Mo
LATE	Little Bluestem	Schizachyrium scoparium	Purple, Bronze	2-4'		L	D,M
	New England Aster	Symphyotrichum novae-angliae	Blue, Pink, Purple	3-6'		L,C,S	M,Mo
	Smooth Aster	Symphyotrichum laeve	Blue	2-4'		L,S	D,M
	Indian Grass	Sorghastrum nutans	Straw, Gold	5-7'		L,C,S	D,M,O

SOIL:       L = Loam       C = Clay       S = Sandy       R = Rocky
MOISTURE:   D = Dry       M = Medium       O = Moist       W = Wet 

More Garden Plans

  Bee Garden Plan
  Butterfly Garden Plan
  Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Plan
  Cut Flower Garden Play
  Dried Flower Garden Plan