March 2005
Expanding the Birding Concept By Mitch Whitten

Habitat products push specialty birding retailers beyond feeders and seed.

One wild bird store owner built his store on a garden center’s property. Another sublet land on her property to a small plant store. Still another birding business owner offers habitat-scaping advice to customers who want to outfit their backyard. They all share a vision for backyard retailing: Plants and birding supplies should be sold in proximity because consumers need both for a complete backyard habitat. This means birding retailers selling merchandise well beyond the scope of feeding birds. Beyond optics, platform feeders and gourmet seed.

For other birding storeowners, the trend means they are locating their stores near garden centers or even creating strategic alliances with purveyors of plants. “Instead of just selling the bird feeder, we’re trying to sell a lifestyle. We do habitats,” says Beverly Vogt, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited in Northport, Ala. A former buyer for Neiman-Marcus, she has run her store for five years but only recently developed the habitat concept when two women approached her about opening an adjacent garden center. Eric Moore broke similar ground, when he opened Jay’s Bird Barn on the property of Watter’s Garden Center, a venerable retailer in Prescott, Ariz. Vogt says, “It’s a big leap — but a very worthwhile one.”

Emerging trend

Birding has been a hot topic lately, grabbing headlines in magazines and newspapers. The film “Winged Migration” was even nominated for an Academy Award.

The habitat movement trend has been emerging for several years. It combines backyard birding with gardening, which was trendy in the 1990s and has continued to capture the consumer’s imagination.

Retailers and manufacturers consider the trend at trade shows, discussing how customers want their help “putting it all together.” Dane Moore of BestNest.com, a birding industry distributor, says that the industry is moving in this direction — faster than some retailers may realize. “Once you have products for squirrels, bats, butterflies, you wake up and realize you’re not a birding store; you’re a habitat store,” Moore says.

In addition to feeders and water gardening supplies, bat houses are selling well at BestNest.com, which Moore attributes to West Nile virus concerns and the mammal’s ability to nibble away at mosquito populations.

Getting creative

Vogt saw the trend coming when she opened her bird shop in an old house with a garden. “People kept walking into the garden. Things would be blooming, and people would ask ‘Where can I get that?'” The house afforded her 3,700 sq.ft. of retail space. But then she took a business risk when she decided to move her store onto the property so she could lease the house to a law firm.

The gamble seems to have paid off. The firm’s lease provides a new source of income. And, she is making the same sales in 1,400 sq.ft. as she did in the larger space in the house. The beautiful grounds inspired her to offer habitat tours. “When you’re in a small town, you just don’t have the traffic that you do in a city like Dallas. I had to get creative,” Vogt says.

Getting creative also meant revving up a PR machine. Many marketers know that getting mentioned in magazines and newspapers outweighs any paid advertisement they could buy. Vogt stole an idea from Chicago — sporting life-sized, painted cows around town — and asked local businesses to paint birdhouses. She then auctioned them and sent the proceeds to charity. She received support from Wild Birds Unlimited, Alabama Power and local tourism officials. “That gave me all the credibility in the world. I wasn’t just some little shop owner doing this,” she says.

Birdscaping

Mike and Tina Shaw are retail pioneers with their birdscaping business near Cleveland. They each have full-time jobs. He is a police officer; she is a police dispatcher. In their spare time, they are trying to grow a business that offers habitat consulting to well-to-do homeowners.

Customers, for example, will ask for advice on attracting birds. The Shaws walk the property and suggest products from a notebook they’ve created. Need a refill? They will bring a special seed over to top off the tubes out back.

Mike, who has spotted 30 species in his backyard, says the business started with his eye for ornithology. The Shaws are now certified by the Windstar Wildlife Institute.

“People started asking questions, and we started giving them advice,” Mike says. “We just started with some friends who wanted birds.” That was two years ago. Their average sale? Nearly $200.

The couple is still searching for a business plan that will allow them to turn this part-time hobby into a full-time enterprise. The couple is not shy about seeking advice from others in the industry — especially tips for marketing and advertising. “I can’t say ‘Hi, we’re birdscapers. Call us,'” he says. “People would say, ‘What’s a birdscaper?'”

The personal experience drives sales in this business. “Hopefully, we’re saving them some trial and error by going to their homes to get a first-hand view,” Mike says.

Selling plants

There has traditionally been a church-state-like separation between retailers selling birding products and those selling garden plants. But market forces are chipping at the wall. Consumers see birds, plants, water and accessories working together in their backyard.

Ironically, birds are attracted by plant material as much as seed. They’re drawn to water, too, and that is another element that retailers can promote in a backyard habitat.

But don’t look for birding stores to start carrying plants anytime soon. Most wild bird locations are ill equipped to handle plants buried in messy soil and requiring water frequently.



Mitch Whitten

Mitch Whitten is editor of Birding Business magazine and has spent more than a decade in retail and nature journalism. He can be reached by E-mail at [email protected].