周四 | 花园怎能没有小鸟？（订阅+关注，五星好评）

打卡抽奖：1.订阅本专辑；2.坚持在每期音频下方评论打卡，每月抽取3名赠送国家地理世界建筑3D正版拼图！

本月打卡抽奖挑战时间：8.15-9.15

免费订阅：每周一到周五8:00更新，纯正美音磨耳朵！

What Is a Garden without Birds?

花园怎能没有小鸟？

Waking up to a dove making cooing sounds orwatching a sparrow feeding helps many people connect with nature and reducetension.

But fewer people know that birds are also the mostcost-effective way of reducing the number of pests intheir garden.

Young birds love to eat insects, including aphids, whiteflies,cabbage worms and cucumber beetles.

Doug Tallamy is a professor at the University of Delawareprofessor. He wrote the 2007 book Bringing NatureHome: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. He describeshow a small group of chickadees, for example, could eat 6,000 to 9,000caterpillars from birth through their first flight. That would clear out pestsfrom any garden.

Bird-friendly environment

Jessica Damiano writes about gardening for the Associated Press.She said you do not have to be a bird expert to get pest-control effects thatwill help your garden. All you need to do is create a bird-friendlyenvironment.

Damiano says the answer includes using native plants to feednative insects, which will attract hungry birds. They could be different kindsof plants that provide berries, nectar or seeds all year. The Audubon Society’s Native Plants Database is an excellentsource of bird-friendly plant suggestions for your area.

When food is in short supply in the cold, winter climate, leaveflowering perennial plants out for birds to eat. As autumn leaves fall to theground, place them under shrubs andtrees to attract insects to feed the birds. And as the leaves break down, theywill enrich the soil to give spring plants more nutrients.

A goldfinch sits on a seed-filled sunflower head just a few feet from awindow bird feeder. Birds are more likely to come to bird feeders if there issome cover nearby.

Bird feeders

Set a birdfeeder in the garden. Select one that comes apart for easy cleaning and that isbuilt to keep the seeds dry. To avoid spreading diseases that can sicken birds,provide only enough seeds to last a few days, and clean feeders at least twotimes a month.

Choosehigh-quality seeds high in fat and protein, like unsalted peanuts or black-oilsunflower seeds. Migrating birds need to store calories to prepare for theirend-of-season trips.

Suet is anutritious cake made from animal fat and often mealworms, seeds or grains. Itcan be hung in a feeder designed to keep out other wildlife.

Place the birdfeeder in a different place regularly to avoid the buildup of discardedseedshells and bird droppings on the ground.

Remember toprovide the migrating birds with fresh water for bathing in a container. Itshould be cleaned and disinfected every week.

And avoid usingchemical poisons to kill insects. They do not necessarily kill pestsimmediately. Insects that eat or touch the insecticide product can be eaten bybirds, which can be poisoned as a result.

I’m JillRobbins.

Jessica Damianoreported this story for the Associated Press. Hai Do adapted it for VOALearning English.

Words in ThisStory

pest –n. an animal orinsect that causes problems for people especially by damaging crops 害虫，有害动物

shrub –n. a plant thathas stems of wood and is smaller than a tree 灌木

discarded –adj. somethingthrown away 丢弃的；废弃的