Educational Resources
Learn More
About Native Habitats
A curated collection of books, organizations, and citizen science programs to deepen your understanding of native bird habitats and ecological restoration.
The Science — Key Statistics from Peer-Reviewed Research
caterpillar species supported by a single native white oak
Tallamy, University of Delaware
of terrestrial bird species rely on insects to feed their young
Tallamy, University of Delaware
native plant cover needed to sustain local songbird populations
Tallamy & Maguire, 2012
acres of lawn in the US — roughly 15 national parks combined
Tallamy, Nature's Best Hope
birds lost in North America since 1970
Rosenberg et al., Science, 2019
of native plants produce 90% of the caterpillars in food webs
Tallamy & Shropshire, 2009
Recommended Reading
Bringing Nature Home
by Doug Tallamy
The foundational text of the native habitat movement. Tallamy reveals the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife, and makes a compelling case for why our gardens matter to the survival of birds and insects. Essential reading for anyone beginning this journey.
Nature's Best Hope
by Doug Tallamy
Tallamy's follow-up presents his vision for a grassroots conservation movement — Homegrown National Park — in which millions of homeowners collectively restore habitat by converting lawns to native plantings. Practical, optimistic, and urgent.
The Nature of Oaks
by Doug Tallamy
A month-by-month account of the extraordinary ecological activity that takes place in and around a single native oak tree. Beautifully written and illustrated. Transforms the way you see every oak you encounter.
Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A botanist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation weaves together indigenous wisdom and Western science into a profound meditation on our relationship with the plant world. Deeply moving and perspective-shifting.
The Living Landscape
by Rick Darke & Doug Tallamy
A beautifully photographed guide to designing ecologically functional landscapes that are also aesthetically compelling. Bridges the gap between ecological science and garden design. Highly practical.
Planting in a Post-Wild World
by Thomas Rainer & Claudia West
A design-forward approach to naturalistic planting that draws on plant community ecology. Excellent for homeowners who want their native garden to look intentional and beautiful, not weedy.
Organizations & Resources
Willistown Conservation Trust
A cornerstone conservation organization protecting open space, farmland, and natural habitats across Willistown Township and the surrounding Main Line region. WBDS partners closely with WCT on native habitat education, Wildflower Week, and community stewardship events at Rushton Woods Preserve.
Radnor Conservancy
Dedicated to preserving the natural character of Radnor Township through land conservation, environmental education, and community stewardship. An essential local partner for protecting green corridors and native habitats across the Western Main Line.
Homegrown National Park
Doug Tallamy's initiative to map and connect native habitats across North America. Register your habitat, find native plants for your zip code, and join a growing movement of ecological restoration.
National Audubon Society
America's oldest bird conservation organization. Their Plants for Birds database allows you to search for the highest-value native plants for your specific zip code.
Audubon Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's chapter of the Audubon Society, with programs specific to the Commonwealth including Bird Town Pennsylvania — a community certification program for bird-friendly municipalities.
Penn State Extension
Excellent research-based resources on native plants, wildlife habitat, and sustainable landscaping specific to Pennsylvania. Free publications and workshops available.
Brandywine Conservancy
A leading conservation organization in the Brandywine Valley region of Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware. Excellent resources on native plants and habitat restoration for the region.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
The world's leading source of bird science. Home to eBird, All About Birds, and the Great Backyard Bird Count. Essential for learning to identify birds and contribute to citizen science.
PA Native Plant Society
Pennsylvania's statewide organization for native plant enthusiasts. Plant sales, workshops, field trips, and a community of knowledgeable gardeners across the Commonwealth.
Xerces Society
The leading invertebrate conservation organization. Excellent resources on supporting native bees, butterflies, and other insects — the foundation of the bird food web.
Citizen Science Programs
Your observations matter. Citizen science programs allow ordinary people to contribute to long-term scientific datasets that help researchers track bird population trends, migration patterns, and habitat needs. Participation is free and requires no special expertise.
eBird
Cornell Lab's global bird observation database. Log your sightings, access migration maps, and contribute to decades of bird population data. Free and easy to use.
Great Backyard Bird Count
An annual four-day event every February where birders worldwide count birds and submit their observations. A great way to start paying attention to the birds in your yard.
Christmas Bird Count
The longest-running citizen science project in North America, running since 1900. Join a local count team and contribute to 120+ years of bird population data.
iNaturalist
A global platform for identifying and recording plants, insects, birds, and other wildlife. Excellent for learning what's living in your garden and contributing to biodiversity science.
Voices That Shape the Vision
Most American properties follow the same script: a carpet of sterile turf grass that supports almost no life, ringed by non-native foundation plantings chosen for how they look in a nursery. It's a landscape that performs tidiness while quietly starving the ecosystem around it. WBDS takes an entirely different approach — one that is rooted, foundationally, in conservation.
Every WBDS habitat is a layered living system — not a garden in the traditional sense, but a place where canopy, understory, shrub layer, ground cover, and soil life are all working together. Where the birds, insects, fungi, and plants are in constant, invisible conversation. We are leveraging nature's remarkable ability to enthrall human beings — to pull something ancient and dormant back to the surface.
When a living habitat takes hold outside your window, something shifts. A connection forms — to a place, to a season, to a bird you've started to recognize. It activates something in the brain that most of us haven't felt since childhood. It grounds you. And the remarkable thing is, you don't even have to get your feet dirty. That vision is shaped by three people whose thinking runs through everything WBDS does.
Adam Woodruff
Adam Woodruff LLC · St. Louis, MO
Adam works the way WBDS thinks — from the plant outward. His landscapes don't impose a design on a site; they listen to it. Every planting is atmosphere-focused, site-responsive, and built to evolve. When I look at his work, I see what a layered living system looks like when it's also deeply beautiful. That's the standard.
Piet Oudolf
Pioneer of the New Perennial Movement · Netherlands
Piet changed how I think about time in a landscape. His gardens — the High Line, the Lurie Garden in Chicago, Hauser & Wirth in Somerset — are beautiful in every season, including winter. Including decay. That's the concept: a living system doesn't stop being beautiful when it goes dormant. The structure, the seed heads, the skeletal forms — that is the design. WBDS builds with that same understanding.
Five Seasons
The Gardens of Piet Oudolf · Directed by Thomas Piper
If you want to understand what a living landscape truly means — not just intellectually, but in your bones — watch this film. Thomas Piper follows Piet across five seasons and somehow captures something that most garden writing never does: the feeling of a place that is fully, quietly alive. I've watched it more times than I can count. It keeps getting better.
Order at fiveseasonsmovie.comA Note from Bob
"I'm just the messenger. Everything I know about native habitats I learned from Doug Tallamy, from the birds themselves, and from years of getting my hands dirty in the garden. The resources on this page are the same ones I return to again and again. Start with Bringing Nature Home. Then go outside and look."
— Bob Barrett, Founder & Visionary, Wild Bird DesignScapes