Berries for our birds
Non-migrating birds call this home. Help them overwinter with less stress by providing sources of shelter and food with the right landscape plants. (Image by Chris Chow @chris_chow)
It’s the time of year that teases with a few warm days reminding us that spring is near…and then it snows! It’s a tug-of-war between the seasons! Lucky for us, we can find ways to defrost as winter sends its final chill (hot chocolate, anyone?). When the weather turns harsh again, the birds won’t be making hot chocolate(!) and will need more than our feeders to survive.
Immediate help is to provide good quality food: seeds, nuts, suet and other items high in fat and calories. A long term, more permanent assist for the chickadees, titmice, cardinals, finches and many other birds that make Franklin Park their winter home is to offer berries that grow on native trees and shrubs. These natives do double duty – they not only provide food for birds when other supplies have run out, they add pizzazz to your yard during the gray winter months! And now is the time to plan for spring planting so that your yard will be more warm and welcoming next winter.
In addition to red winterberry (Iles verticillate) which we talked about last month, here are some native plants that will spice up your yard and turn it into a winter bird buffet.*
American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana). This stunning deciduous shrub has clusters of magenta berries that persist from fall into winter. In early summer, small flowers in violet, pink or white attract bees and butterflies. American beautyberry is native, not to be confused with the more commonly seen Purple Beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma), which is an exotic from Asia.
American Holly (Ilex opaca). Its bright red berries provide food for birds and because it’s evergreen it also provides protection from wind, rain and snow. To ensure a good crop of fruit, cluster female holly bushes with a male. (This is one species of tree available through the McLean Trees Foundation’s Neighborhood Tree Program for $100.)
Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum). Once considered trash trees by gardeners, these natives are now cultivated for their fiery red autumn foliage and showy seed heads. They are also without equal as a winter emergency food for a wide range of birds and mammals. (Poison sumac is not really sumac and should be avoided as it’s more closely related to poison ivy.)
Red chokeberry (Aronia arbutifolia). This deciduous shrub provides white to light pink flowers in the spring, excellent red fall foliage color, and clusters of edible red berries that persist through the fall and well into the winter. It adds multi-season beauty to the garden.
Wax Myrtle, Southern Bayberry (Morella cerifera). This popular ornamental is used for screens and hedges. Pale blue berries occur on female plants in winter – providing you have a male plant close enough to the berry-producing female plants for pollination to occur. The fallen leaves of this plant are the larval host of the Red-Banded Hairstreak butterfly.
Native viburnums – Arrow-wood (Viburnum dentatum); Possumhaw (Vibrunum nudum); Black Haw (Viburnum prunifolium). These shrubs offer lovely flowers, beautiful purplish-pink leaves, fall color, and blue fruits in late summer and fall. They are a powerhouse for wildlife. They’re a host plant for the larvae of the Spring Azure butterfly; their flowers support numerous native bee species, and the berries feed several songbirds, including the Eastern Bluebird.
With one or more of these natives, your yard will be more colorful and your birds will thank you for the extra boost to get them through the winter!
Other ways you can help birds and wildlife make it through the winter:
Leave some leaves. Leaves create a natural mulch that helps suppress weeds while fertilizing the soil as it breaks down. Leaves also serve as a habitat for wildlife, including lizards, birds, turtles, frogs, and insects that overwinter in fallen leaves. If you don’t want to leave them on your lawn, rake them into a corner of your yard or around a tree.
Leave flower heads and stalks. Birds feed on the seeds and insects that dried flowers provide.
Offer shelter. Plant evergreen shrubs and trees. Build a brush pile. Add a roost box to your yard.
Provide quality food. Select seeds, nuts, suet and other items high in fat and calories to give birds fuel to generate body heat. And keep your feeders full.
*INFORMATION SOURCES