Bird-Friendly Demonstration Garden at the Steinberg Nature Center

Planting a better place for birds, other pollinators & people, too

Tropical Audubon Society’s Steinberg Nature Center is home to a Bird-Friendly Demonstration Garden designed to inspire and empower Miami-Dade County residents to create wildlife habitat for birds, bees, butterflies and other pollinators in their yards, patios and balconies, helping to re-green urban areas.

Framing the front yard of our historic Doc Thomas House headquarters on Sunset Drive, the Bird-Friendly Demonstration Garden project is supported by the National Audubon Society’s “Plants for Birds” Burke Grant and Miami-Dade County’s Environmental Education Community-based Organization Grant.

Since the official groundbreaking in February 2020, dozens of volunteers have helped to install more than 100 native plants whose inherent resilience allows for reduced lawn and landscape care, and the elimination or reduction of irrigation and chemicals, including pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

Once complete, the garden will feature interpretive signs to direct visitors through the space and help them identify the plants and their value to the environment. Visitors are empowered to turn their own yards into havens for birds and other wildlife, and share their stories on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels. Our Bird-Friendly Gardening Guide South Florida Style is available online and on-site.

The Bird-friendly Demonstration Garden project is led by TAS Volunteer Coordinator Amy Creekmur and Board member Kirsten Hines. Creekmur is a master gardener and former director of TREE-mendous Miami; Hines, who is also on the Audubon Florida Board, is a nature writer and photographer who co-authored the gardening reference book titled “Attracting Birds to South Florida Gardens.”

“Birds depend on native plants for food, shelter and places to nest,” Creekmur notes.  “A manicured lawn is a monoculture, it’s like a desert to birds and other pollinators, and non-native landscape plants are generally a poor food source for birds and other wildlife.”

“We’ve designed the Demo Garden to show people that wildlife-friendly landscaping is beautiful, cost-effective and doesn’t have to be complicated to design and implement,” Hines says. “Native plants and a little diversity can convert any garden into an oasis for birds and other wildlife, which is critical to the overall ecological health of increasingly urbanized Miami-Dade County.

Area residents can learn to garden for birds and other pollinators by joining our Bird-friendly Gardening Days on the third Saturday of every month from 9am until noon.

The community’s help is essential to further transforming and stewarding the Steinberg Nature Center into a food-rich oasis for birds and other wildlife. To become a habitat steward, contact Amy Creekmur at volunteer@tropicalaudubon.org.

Every newly planted native species helps tip the scales for birds toward survival. Hand-in-glove with TAS, bird lovers and budding naturalists across Miami-Dade County can restore a natural, nurturing and sustainable native landscape. Where birds thrive, people prosper.

Banner photo: Black-throated Blue Warbler in American Beautyberry bush by Will Stuart