Say you’re on an extended road trip, traveling hundreds – even thousands – of miles, eating what’s readily available along the interstate. Coffee and donuts for breakfast. A soda and chips for lunch. A burger and fries for dinner. It fills you up, but leaves you feeling lethargic, bloated and cranky. You wonder how you’ll survive this seemingly endless trip. You begin to crave a salad or vegetable plate. You scan the information signs at every exit ramp, hoping for a Cracker Barrel so you can fuel up on pinto beans, collard greens, sweet potatoes and cornbread.
Migrating birds also experience something akin to this. On their long and arduous journey from their breeding to wintering grounds, starvation is one of the many perils they face, along with predators, extreme weather, loss of habitat, light pollution and collisions with manmade structures.
Before setting out, birds try to bulk up, increasing their fat stores, but quickly burn through their reserves. They also need to fuel up along the way, just as we’d have to do on a multi-day road trip. While there’s generally no shortage of gas stations, burger joints and convenience stores for us to fill our tanks and bellies, it can be challenging for birds to find the high quality sustenance they need. Backyard bird feeders are only part of the solution.
Audubon recently reported on a study that suggests birds have a clear preference for native berries over the exotics that have become invasive in so many yards and natural areas. The research was conducted in New England where Japanese barberry and multiflora rose are major problems. Here in the Southest, the worst offenders might be porcelain berry, bush honeysuckle and privet.
In addition to being more nutritious, native fruits have also evolved alongside birds for millennia. Their ripening coincides with the birds’ arrival, which is mutually beneficial. Wily naturalists also flock to these plants, knowing they provide the best opportunity to observe birds, butterflies and other species.
“I definitely follow the plants,” said wildlife photographer Will Stuart of Charlotte. His work has graced the pages of numerous websites, articles and books, most recently The Southeast Native Plant Primer by Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross.
This time of year, dogwood trees (Cornus florida) are the go-to berry producer. He notes their bright red fruits become even more attractive to birds as the weather turns cool and they soften a bit. They’re favored by the entire suite of thrushes — woodthrush, hermit, gray-cheeked and Swainson’s— the imperiled birds of understated garb and ethereal song.
Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a close second. Their extravagant clusters of purple fruits are so beautiful you’d think they’d been cultivated simply for aesthetics, but a wide variety of birds gobble them up. Like the dogwood, they attract all the thrushes. I’ve also noticed their appeal to the so-called mimic thrushes — mockingbird, catbird and thrasher. Stuart has seen bluebirds feeding on them and recently found a female rose-breasted grosbeak gorging on the ones in his backyard.
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) doesn’t produce copious amounts of berries, but they disappear quickly so Stuart suspects they’re highly prized. Stuart and I both appreciate how winterberry hollies (Ilex verticillata) bridge the season. They ripen in time to feed the trickle of migrants and generally hang around long enough to “welcome the white-throated sparrows” that winter in the Piedmont.
In the garden setting, I’m also partial to the brilliant autumn fruits of possumhaw (Viburnum nudum), hearts a burstin’(Euonymous americana) and red chokecherry (Aronia arbutifolia). I even allow pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) to flourish in my shrub border, its weedy nature outweighed by its beauty and wildlife appeal. A friend uses it to great effect in flower arrangements.
Much attention is paid to the need for quality habitat on breeding and wintering grounds, but birds also require a chain of rest stops along their entire migration route. That’s why my conservation efforts aren’t limited to protecting and improving habitat on a large scale in the Uwharries. They also encompass 30-acre Latta Park a mile from uptown Charlotte — one of the best places in the region during spring migration — and even my tiny backyard. Every scrap of habitat matters. From a bird’s perspective, it’s all connected.
To learn more about native plants that will feed the birds in the Piedmont, go to https://nc.audubon.org/conservation/bird-friendly-communities/bird-friendly-native-plants and enter your zip code for a curated list.
