“a garden full of birds tends to be a healthy place”

Even though the "Sustainable Gardening" column (requires registration) by Ann Lovejoy in today's Kitsap Sun has a decidedly Pacific Northwest flavor, it contains many helpful hints of a more general nature on how to make your garden and backyard more attractive to birds, such as:

Before ripping out natives of any kind, find out whether they nourish and house birds. You may learn to find great beauty in our handsome, healthy natives, just as the wild things do.