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Notes from “Bird-Friendly Gardening” Presentation by Tom Tribble

Slide 2: Almost 80% of plants in our human-dominated areas are not native.

Slide 3: Northern Mockingbird on Winterberry – one of our native deciduous hollies – good food for birds in winter. Ripen during fall migration.
Berries will last into the winter. Great food for birds on cold winter days
Good to think about whether your yard provides these 4 food types for as many seasons of the year as possible – especially berries – summer, fall, winter… nectar for hummingbirds the whole time they are with us, April through September.
A small yard can support many birds with some planning.

Slide 5: Fruit July – September

Slide 6: Berries are very important for birds during fall migration. Berries are fuel and help birds put on body fat.

Slide 7: Berries are very important for birds during fall migration. Berries are fuel and help birds put on body fat.
Wood Thrush may fly 300 miles in one night, all fueled by body fat. If they stop in your yard, this is the plant they need to find.Spicebush berries are 50% fat – the perfect fuel for the Wood Thrush to fatten up and fly again. Spicebush are dioecious – must plant male & female plants.By planting Spicebush, you are giving a bird one more day! Migration is the most perilous time of bird’s year – the sooner they arrive in Mexico and Central America the better.

Slide 8: Dogwood berries – Cornus florida (NOT Cornus kousa dogwood) – are about 25% fat – also sought after by migrating songbirds.

Slide 9: Warblers might not tackle a big spicebush berry, but Beautyberry is ideal and a total bird magnet.

Slide 11: Pokeweed is native and important for migrating birds too. And you don’t have to plant it!

Slide 12: More berries for winter, used by waxwings, bluebirds, robins, thrashers, also goldfinches.

Slide 14: A female chickadee will generally lay 5 eggs. From the time they hatch, it takes about 16 days for the babies to grow their feathers and bones and be able to sly away. They must eat protein – insects. Doug Tallamy reports that the family of 7 birds will eat 9,000 caterpillars!

Slide 15: And where do mom and dad get all those caterpillars? Oak trees and many other species of native plants! To illustrate the difference between native and exotic plants, take a look at these two groups of trees—Our native oaks in the genus Quercus are the best trees for caterpillars, hosting over 530 species of caterpillars. Whereas Ginkgo, a commonly planted ornamental landscaping tree from Asia, supports only 4 species of caterpillars. When you are a bird in search of food for your young, that is a life-threatening difference.

Slide 16: Top 10 native trees for caterpillars.
Oak trees support >500 kinds of caterpillars
Ginkgo trees – native to Asia – support only 5 (food desert or furniture for birds)
Credit to entomologist Doug Tallamy at University of Delaware

Slide 21: Brown-headed Nuthatch like many other birds stashes pine seeds to eat throughout the year especially when insects are not easy to find

Slide 22: Besides pine seeds, acorns that birds store for later – want to have a cascade of flowers that produce seeds for finches & sparrows
Leave plenty of flowers be (don’t deadhead) – seeds Jul-Oct

Slide 24: Goldenrod seeds Sep-Nov
Little Bluestem Jul-Nov

Slide 26: Food group #4 – Nectar for hummingbirds
This little bird crosses the Gulf of Mexico twice a year – 300 to 500 miles nonstop. Must fatten up on nectar before migrating.
Flowers Mar-Jul+

Slide 32: Scientists call it structural diversity. Birds call it home. Think of it in terms of different layers or stories: trees provide the canopy layer or over-story. The mid-story layers are created by small trees and shrubs. And the understory is provided by the ground cover of grasses and broad-leaved herbaceous plants. The more habitat layers you have, the more birds your space can support — even if it’s a tiny urban yard.

Slide 33: Even a tiny back yard can be bird-friendly.

Slide 35: (Last slide) Transform your yard into a bird sanctuary. Native plants can birds’ basic needs – food, shelter, and places to nest. Just add water!
For inspiration I recommend the book, Bringing Nature Home, by Doug Tallamy. An entomologist in Pennsylvania, Tallamy has put numbers on why native plants matter.
By simply choosing native plants, no matter where you live, you can help sustain wildlife.