Bird-friendly Native Plants Of The Year - Golden Gate Bird Alliance

Golden Gate Bird Alliance and California Native Plant Society Yerba Buena and East Bay chapters are proud to partner on a local Native Plants of the Year program to benefit birds, butterflies and our environment. A new list comes out each year around September, in time for planting after fall’s first heavy rain.

Meet The 2024 Winter Planting List!

Common Manzanita

Common Manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita) has beautiful red branches in gracefully twisting forms. It’s a foundation plant in bird and pollinator gardens: its winter blooms are white, urn-shaped flowers with pinkish base. Its reddish berries ripen in summer. It attracts native bees and provides cover and food for birds. It’s deer resistant.

Tufted Hairgrass

Tufted Hairgrass (Deschampsia cespitosa) is a beautiful fountain-shaped grass that grows in clumps called tussocks. Delicate wands of golden-green-purple flowers emerge in spring. It’s green with winter rains and its leaves turn golden brown in summer and fall. It’s deer resistant.

California Aster

California Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense), also called Pacific Aster, has cheerful, light purple blooms from summer to fall in the San Francisco Bay Area. Butterflies and moths consume the nectar and birds eat the seed after the blooms have departed. It spreads easily. It’s deer resistant.

Ocean spray

Ocean Spray (Holodiscus discolor), also called Creambush, is a bright green, fragrant bush with cream-colored flowers. It provides cover and food for birds and small mammals. It’s very easy to care for and can survive drought times. It’s deer resistant.

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Why Local Native Plants?

You will be helping birds raise their chicks, and who isn’t happy about that? Birds need native plants to feed their chicks and to stay fed all winter. In the spring, birds pick off caterpillars to feed their chicks. In the fall, the seeds and fruits from native plants are excellent sources of energy for the winter.

Local native plants are easy to grow in our climate and soils. This means less maintenance and, once established, less plant care.

Local native plants are made to endure the pests, heat, fog, natural rainfall and other plant maladies found here. Gardening without pesticides and herbicides means a healthier, happier planet. This also means that local native plants save water and are more resistant to climate extremes.

Local native plants are gorgeous. If you haven’t seen a Coast Red Flowering Currant in bloom, we suggest you take a moment and check it out. These native plants are great additions to your garden over time. We’re not recommending a total plant makeover today but just adding a few of these species to your backyard can make a world of difference for birds.

Get Started!

Bird-Friendly Native Plants of the Year are a hand-selected list of plants to add to your garden this year. The list is short so that you can easily add new plants to your native collection year after year. If you “collect as you grow” you can add plants to your plans today while local growers can prepare for future years.

Download the Gardening For Birds With Local Native Plants guide.
Go to the Backyard Habitat Quick Guide to start creating a bird-friendly backyard.
Check out the Yerba Buena CNPS Biodiversity Resources page.
Read more about what you can do at home to make your community and your yard more bird-friendly in the face of climate change.

Native Plants of the Year is all about LOCAL! Local plants, local businesses, and local gardens. By supporting local nurseries, you are helping to lay down roots to grow more native plants.

Find a List of Local Native Plant Nurseries