No-mow lawn club vs. traditional grass, who's right for the birds?

So last fall a neighbor saw my scraggly, clover-filled yard and told me I was basically running a rodent hotel. I got defensive, but then I actually watched the birds for a month. The goldfinches went nuts for the seed heads, but I barely saw any robins or flickers digging around like they do on the mowed lawns next door. I switched half the yard to a 3-inch mow height and left the back corner wild. Now I get both, but I'm still torn. Does a neat lawn actually help ground-feeding birds see predators better, or are we just making their lives harder for our own eyes? Anyone else get shamed into changing their habitat setup, and did the birds actually care in the end?

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park.wyatt1mo ago

Hell yeah, I did the same thing a couple years back! Kept the front yard mowed short for the robins and left the back patch wild for the finches and sparrows. Birds didn't give a damn about my yard shame, but the balance worked way better than going all-in on one side.