The Habitat Connection

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The Habitat Connection

Bringing habitat back home in Middle TN 🌱🐛🐦 🏡🌎

05/25/2026

Our lawns and gardens can be extensions of both ourselves and the surrounding ecosystem, full of natural wonder and personal creativity. Today’s Bird Sanctuary Certification in Donelson — our 120th to date — was a testament to that. What Karen has created on her property is an inspiration—extensive gardens that are both beautiful and teeming with life. We were thrilled to add her to our ever-expanding map of Nashville and Franklin folks dedicated to supporting birds, biodiversity, and ecosystem health where they live🌱🐛🐤🏡

05/15/2026

Hummingbirds are arriving — is your yard hummingbird friendly?

While hummingbird feeders are a great way to attract hummingbirds, the best way to keep them in your yard while they’re here is to provide habitat. Plant native plants, avoid pesticides (which kill insects and spiders, a big part of a hummer’s diet), make your windows bird-collision-proof, and offer fresh water. Taking these steps will support them as they nest, their fledglings grow, and they gear up to fly south in the fall. And the best part is: if you provide good habitat, they’ll know to come back next year!

Offering a nectar feeder is not without benefit: it supplements their diet while bringing them closer to you. But it’s very important that you keep your feeders clean to avoid making these treasured birds sick.

Here’s how to safely maintain your hummingbird feeders:

Clean feeders every 2–3 days in warm weather
Use hot water (no soap residue)
Scrub thoroughly to prevent mold
Skip the red dye

Red dye isn’t necessary and may be harmful to hummingbirds. The feeder itself provides enough color attraction!

Simple nectar recipe:
1 part white sugar
4 parts water

Healthy feeders = healthy hummingbirds
Photo credit Ronald Manley

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day from the Habitat Connection!

Today let's celebrate some of nature's most dedicated mothers - mama birds. From nest creation, to sitting on eggs, to foraging for food - bird mothers (and fathers!) work tirelessly to care for their little chicks.

Did you know that a single clutch of chickadees requires 6,000-9,000 caterpillars to fledge? That's about 350-600 caterpillars a day, and that's just for the chicks - the parents have to eat, too! Caterpillars need native plants to feed on, so no native plants = no baby birds. That is why it is so important for us as homeowners to make the choice to plant native to support healthy bird populations.

So this mother's day let's remember all the things our (and mother nature's) mothers do to provide for their young.

Photo credit: Ronald Manley Photography

05/09/2026

We’re heading to the farm — and we’d love to see you there!

The Nashville Zoo is hosting its annual Farm Day celebration at the Historic Home & Farm area, and The Habitat Connection will be there!

Saturday, May 16, 2026
9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
Historic Home & Farm area (included with zoo admission)

Farm Day celebrates heritage livestock breeds and the important connection between agriculture, conservation, and healthy ecosystems.

You can enjoy:
Animal encounters
Keeper chats
Local nonprofit booths (come say hello!)
Hands-on learning for all ages

Stop by our table to learn how native plants, backyard habitats, and community restoration projects help wildlife thrive right here in Middle Tennessee.

GrowHabitat

04/28/2026

Plant sale season is here!
We’re excited to join the Williamson County Master Gardeners Plant Sale, one of the best places to find plants that thrive in Middle Tennessee.
Whether you’re starting your first garden or adding habitat-friendly plants to your landscape, this is a wonderful opportunity to grow something beautiful and beneficial for pollinators.
Come chat with us about native plants, habitat restoration, and easy ways to support biodiversity at home.

Williamson County Ag Expo Park
May 2, 2026
9:00 AM – 3:30 PM

04/27/2026

It was an absolute joy installing a pollinator garden at Whitsitt Elementary School last week! Together with students and staff, we moved two yards of soil, cleared sixty feet of grass, planted 300 native plugs, installed two bluebird boxes, a birdbath, and disassembled a damaged gazebo structure. We can’t wait to hear about all the wonder this garden brings to the school community. A special thanks to all of our volunteers who helped make this possible 💚🌱🐛🐝

04/22/2026

Happy Earth Day! For us, every day revolves around caring for life on our planet and encouraging others to do the same. The first image is of the more than 120 properties in Middle TN that have worked with us to become certified bird sanctuaries. These folks are dedicated to regenerating and reconnecting native habitat for the flora and fauna that make our world go round. Will you join us? Click the link in bio to learn more about our Bird Sanctuary Certification program 🌎

04/05/2026

April is officially Native Plant Month in Tennessee!

Native plants are the foundation of healthy ecosystems. They provide food for insects and birds, shelter for wildlife, increase biodiversity, improve soil health, and help our landscapes thrive with less water and maintenance. When you plant native, you’re restoring habitat, biodiversity, and ecosystem health right where you live.

This month, we invite you to:
Add one native plant to your yard.
Support pollinators.
Replace turf or invasive species with habitat.
Become part of a growing movement across Tennessee.

Every yard can provide habitat. Every person can make a difference.

03/30/2026

Want to make a positive impact by not doing anything? April is the Cumberland River Compact’s “No Mow” month here in Nashville! Even just one month of not mowing helps reduce erosion and runoff while showing you what native plants you already have in your yard.

Pro tip: Not mowing through April (and even May, if you’re up for managing ecologically damaging introduced species that can pop up) lets our native spring beauties and blue violets reseed and spread, providing even more early spring food sources for pollinators next year!

03/27/2026

The air is filled with the sounds of twitterpated birds announcing the arrival of spring. As birds start to collect materials to build their nests, let's discuss some nesting facts. 🪺 A common misconception is that all birds use birdhouses, but that is only true of cavity-nesting birds. What other types of nests are there, you ask? Here are some nest types along with the local birds that use them:

Cavity (hole)- Chickadee, Barred Owl, Eastern Bluebird
Platform - Mourning Dove, Osprey, Great Blue Heron
Cup - Hummingbirds, American Robin, Cardinal
Pendant (hanging) - Baltimore Oriole, Red-eyed Vireo
Scrape/ground - Killdeer, Chuck Will's Widow, Canada Goose

These different nest types highlight that the best habitats fulfill requirements for a variety of birds. If you go with a birdhouse, be aware that birds are very picky - the size and position of the hole and even direction of the birdhouse can matter.

To learn more about how birds nest, consider joining Project Nestwatch by Cornell: https://nestwatch.org.

Pictured: Acadian Flycatcher with chicks. Photo credit to Ronald Manley Photography.

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http://thehabitatconnection.org/

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