Are you looking to transform your backyard into a wildlife sanctuary? Well, don’t stop only there– make it into a wildlife oasis with these 5 Top Trees that are the best for attracting all sorts of birds, animals, pollinators, beneficial insects, and more! Plus many trees are host plants for pollinator caterpillars and have large-scale flower displays that support pollinators galore!
You will be helping your own outdoor environment, but at the same time, you’ll also be adding color, shade, attractive form, and other eye-catching features to your landscape!
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Top 5 Types of Trees That Are Wildlife Favorites
Large or small, trees benefit your environment in so many ways! Cooling shade, fresh air, privacy, and curb appeal! Whenever you plant a tree, you also create an entire vertical ecosystem and shelter for birds and other wildlife!
While any tree has its benefits for wildlife and songbirds, trees that produce nuts, seeds, and fruit, and offer shelter, then you’ll create a lasting sanctuary and safety for your neighborhood inhabitants!
These are some of the top trees that support and shelter your local wildlife and songbirds!
#5 Nut Trees
Not only the nut trees that we eat like Pecan, Hickory, Walnut, and more, in addition to Horse Chestnut, Hornbeam, and Buckeye, all support a wide range of wildlife! Not just for squirrels - chipmunks, raccoons, deer, bears, foxes, and a wide range of rodent family members, plus a huge array of ground birds and songbirds enjoy these fruits! Hickory Trees alone support 235 Lepidopteran species. Hazelnuts provide lots of low-to-the-ground cover and shelter, plus food for squirrels, deer, turkey, woodpeckers, grouse, beavers, groundhogs, pheasants, and other animals.
- Hickory Trees - There are 12 varieties of Hickory for all types of environments in the US
- Walnut Trees
- Chestnut Trees
- Hazelnut Trees - More of a shrub but can be trained as trees!
The reasons wildlife love nuts are that they are long-lasting food sources that store well, and are packed with healthy fats that animals need to fatten up for the winter.
#4 Fruit Trees
Who wouldn’t want a home right next to the grocery store and full of flowers every spring? Fruit trees bring fragrant spring beauty, lush foliage for shade, strong limbs, and then - juicy fruit! Birds love plucking the bugs that visit fruit trees, pollinators adore the blooms, and wildlife love the fruit. The strong stems support the nests of both birds and wildlife!
- Crabapple Trees
- Wild Cherry Trees
- Chokecherry Trees
- Wild Plum Trees
- Serviceberry/Juneberry Trees
- Persimmon Trees
Many butterfly caterpillars feed on these plants but songbirds with hungry chicks - in turn - feed on them! Wild Cherry and Plum trees support over 84 bird species, 40 mammals, and 456 Lepidopteran species!
#3 Willow Trees
Offering an amazing variety of about 100 native species, Willows Trees span most of the US and offer loads of perks for wildlife! Willow trees are vital for your butterflies - 455 species of them! The flowers feed pollen-seeking bees, they handle moist to xeric conditions, and grow super fast! Try a hardy Black Willow or an ornamental Weeping Willow. Birds love nesting in Willow branches, their ability to form thickets provides nesting for others. Because Willows like moisture and even wet areas, many wetland birds and mammals use Willows as shelter.
- Weeping Willow
- Black Willow
- Bubba Willow
- Missouri Willow
At least 8 species of native bees exclusively depend on specific Willow trees for their survival!
#2 Evergreen Trees
Prime nesting sites, Evergreens like Fir, Spruce, Juniper, Pine, and Cedars not only provide supreme year-round shelter and cover for birds and wildlife, but they also provide food in the form of cones with fat seeds that Squirrels and Chipmunks, all sorts of songbirds, turkey, and quail, woodpeckers, deer, and raccoons eat the nutritious pine nuts in the cones and Cedar berries that feed Cedar Waxwing and 90 other types of birds!
- Colorado Spruce
- Austrian Pine Tree
- Eastern Red Cedar Tree - wide range and so very adaptable, especially in dry areas
- American Holly and Dahoon Holly - 20 plus bird species rely on the berries for emergency winter food
Evergreen trees have it all for your wildlife! Evergreen trees are the favorite haunt of Owls, Grosbeak, Goldfinch, and Chickadees!
#1 Oak Trees
Resilient, timeless, and highly adaptable, Oaks are mighty fortresses for wildlife and great shade trees for your yard! The unique lobed foliage, spreading strong limbs, and nutritious acorns for a wide range of birds and wildlife all contribute to how the Oak Tree is one of the most supreme wildlife trees. Hosting up to 342 Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) species that in turn feed hungry birds, and the huge number of wildlife (over 100 different kinds of mammals!) that always eat the acorns, Oaks is practically a 5-star luxury hotel!
- Bur Oak - grow massive and long-lived
- White Oak - salt tolerant
- Red Oak Trees
- Pin Oak - tolerates wet to high-moisture soils
- Chestnut Oak
Big shade, long-lived keystone species, and lasting legacy trees, Oaks benefit everyone (and everything) around!
Honorable Mentions
- Redbud Trees are an important wildlife plant that grows over a wide range and offers early, and long-lasting blooms for pollinators, larval hosts for several species of butterflies, and many birds use the branches for foraging, resting, and nesting. Plus these flowering ornamentals thrive in sunny to part-shaded locations, both in the wild and in urban areas!
- Birch Trees are another important species across the cooler northern regions and in the mountains and upper elevations. A larval host plant for several important species of butterflies and moths, and birds love searching the ornamental peeling bark for insects. Birch trees are great nesting sites for birds and small mammals!
Plant A Luxury Hotel For Backyard Wildlife!
Feed songbirds and their chicks, provide safety and shelter, and fatten your wildlife up for the winter while they prepare for hibernation or migration. The flowers feed hummingbirds and their leaves shelter wildlife from storms and temperature extremes while giving them a safe place to sleep for the night. These are also great trees for hunters trying to increase biodiversity and population numbers while encouraging more to return to the area.
Large trees will, of course, offer larger shelter and food sources for more wildlife, including some types of Eagles, Hawks, Herons, and Falcons who rely on their height and strength for their large (and very heavy) nests.
Planting a diverse array of trees is crucial for ensuring there’s something for everything that may cross your area! Whenever possible, choose natives for your area and select plants that native species recognize because they evolved alongside those plants!
And if you have a lot of dead trees that are not a hazard in your yard… keep them! Old trees provide shelter for Owls, Woodpeckers, Wood ducks, and crevice-nesting birds like Bluebirds, Swallows, Chickadees, Titmouse, and Wrens.
Include some top shrubs for supporting wildlife and plant a few plants that feed birds and wildlife throughout the winter months to round out your yard's wildlife support system!
