Urban birds and planting design: strategies for incorporating ecological goals into residential landscapes

Private residential property occupies a major part of the urban land base, yet considerable potential remains for improving the ecological performance of private gardens and landscapes. Ecologically-oriented approaches to design of residential properties, however, are only valuable if they are compatible with private landowner interests and needs–otherwise they may never be implemented. Landscape designers would benefit from more comprehensive guidance for ecologically-oriented planting design that best fits within residential settings. This paper identifies plant-based design strategies that may improve avian species richness, reviews scientific literature supporting these options, and describes three years of structured design research to evaluate how these strategies can be compatible with the programmatic and aesthetic goals of residential landowners. We worked with three New York State communities beginning with a community/neighborhood-scale visioning and goal setting process and ending with parcel-scale landscape designs. The project, in total, developed residential landscape designs for 50 private properties, each incorporating urban ecological benefits in combination with the interests and needs of the owner. We share here a set of planting design strategies for enhancing avian habitat on residential private property generated during this process. They include planting strategies that: a) contribute to landscape networks; b) build vegetative structure at sites; c) provide microrefugia; d) optimize forage resource availability; and e) enhance plant diversity. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of design results for the strategies is discussed.