An Anna’s Hummingbird at red-flowering currant (photo by Mason Maron). What birds would you like to attract to your yard through native gardening? Choose from a variety of native flowering plants to attract birds while adding beautiful garden areas to your yard (Bird Academy photo). During spring, flowering trees including apple trees attract orioles that are looking for nectar and small insects (photo by Paul Konrad).

With so many things happening online these days, why not backyard birding too? Actually, we want to bring an informative online birding course to your attention: “Growing Wild, Gardening for Birds” is a helpful Bird Academy course that provides you with information and inspiration to help you transform your outdoor spaces into attractive places for certain species of birds – birds you would like to attract and benefit in the process in your yard. In this easy to follow course that you can take at your own rate, you will learn what plants and natural features attract a list of birds, along with which native plants thrive in your region of the United States or Canada, and much more.

Gardening is one thing, but it can be overwhelming to know where to start if you wish to garden to attract certain birds to your yard. But with the guidance of the staff at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, this course will help you design welcoming spaces for birds and suggest bird-friendly plant choices that attract different kinds of birds. It all starts by seeing things from birds’ perspectives and transforming your space to meet their needs. With the inspiration, know-how, and planning options that guide you through this course, you will learn how to make your yard even more bird friendly.

While we know it may be late in the season to begin gardening for this summer and fall, we know this course will provide incentive to plan ahead for next year’s growing season. But there is no reason you can’t get started by ordering or buying seeds, improving your soil base, transplanting new plants, and even planting some flower tubers to get their roots established so they will over-winter comfortably.

“Growing Wild, Gardening for Birds” is a self-paced online course that should only take about 3 hours of time to complete, and you will always have access to refer to it anytime. The course provides 6 lessons covering 32 topics, with 17 instructional videos, photo galleries to see varieties of native plants, and plant lists to help you transform your outdoor spaces. With guidance about how you can provide foods and cover for birds throughout the year, and how to attract specific species, this course leads you through all the decisions you will make as you get started and follow through with your plans.

Designed for anyone interested in gardening for birds with an outdoor area – large or small – this course will serve as your friendly guide. There is no waiting for anything to be shipped, and no additional material is necessary. You can return to the course anytime for reference or for a refresher – there is no expiration date. All course materials, practice tools, and instructional videos are available through your web browser – learn about Gardening for Birds anytime, anywhere. We also found that a big help is the discussion groups that help you keep learning with chances to discuss questions and techniques. (There is also a 60-day refund guarantee.)

Learn more about “Growing Wild: Gardening for Birds,” the excellent online Bird Academy course from the Cornell Lab at Growing Wild: Gardening for Birds and Nature | Bird Academy • The Cornell Lab (allaboutbirds.org)

Share your backyard birding experiences and photographs with The Birding Wire at editorstbw2@gmail.com