Native Plants for Birds Dan Jaffe Dan Jaffe, Propagator and Stock Bed Grower 41 So what are we all doing here? • Today is all about birds • What does that really mean? • What do birds need to survive? • Food • Nesting sites • Clean water • Protection from predators • What is the most important food for birds? 40 What’s on the Menu? • Caterpillar, it’s what's for dinner • Caterpillars are specialists • Bees, beetles, ants and other insects • Seeds and berries • Native plants can hit all of these categories • Shelter, clean water and nesting sites 39 Today’s Plants Trees Herbaceous Red Cedar Perennials Red Mulberry Pussy toes Aspen Spikenard Black cherry Joe Pye Weed Oak Sunflower Canada mayflower Shrubs Wild bergamot Cardinal flower Serviceberry Foxglove beardtongue Trumpet Honeysuckle Winterberry Goldenrod Bee balm Spicebush Aster Raspberry The Lawn of the Dogwood Best Hummingbird Future Blueberry Plants Pennsylvania sedge Viburnum Wild columbine Wild strawberry 38 Herbaceous Perennials Asters • Supports more lepidopteran species than any other herbaceous genus except goldenrod Symphyotrichum laeve • Smooth aster • Full to part sun • Average to dry soils Symphyotrichum cordifolium • Blue wood aster • Part sun to shade, average to dry soils 36 Wild Bergamot and Spotted Bee Balm Hummingbird clearwing Monarda fistulosa • Floral feeders: Bumblebees, pipevine swallowtail, hummingbird clearwing, snowberry clearwing, ruby throated hummingbird • Foliage feeders: hermit sphinx, gray marvel, pyralid moth, Coleophora monardae. • Seed feeders: American finch, field sparrow, dark-eyed juncos Monarda punctata 35 Grasslands and meadows 34 The Eupatorium group Eutrochium fistulosum, purpureum and maculatum • Joe Pye Weed • All are great for bees and butterflies • Great grown from seed • Can be cut to size 33 Woodland Sunflower • Helianthus divaricatus • Sun to part sun • Vigorous in sunny moist sites • Helianthus tuberosus • Does not plat well with others! • Supports a myriad of lepidopteran species! 32 American Spikenard, Life of Man Aralia racemosa • Berries can be eaten in mid summer • Part sun, rich soils 31 Give me Goldenrod! • Goldenrods support more life than any other herbaceous genus Solidago caesia • Wreath, axillary or bluestem goldenrod • Parts sun to shade, moist to dry Solidago puberula • Downy goldenrod • Sunny, dry sites 30 Why I Hate Lawns… So what’s the issue? • 90 million pounds of herbicides applied to lawns and gardens annually • ~2 Million pounds of fertilizer run off into the gulf of Mexico annually • The gulf dead zone expands to 7000 sq. miles at the peak of the summer • ~9 billion gallons of water wasted every day… • Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides: • 19 are carcinogens • 27 are sensitizers and/or • 13 are linked with birth defects irritants • 21 with reproductive effects • 11 have the potential to disrupt • 15 are neurotoxic the endocrine (hormonal) • 26 with liver or kidney damage system 29 What if your lawn could look like this without any mowing, watering or fertilizer? 28 Pennsylvania sedge Carex pensylvanica • Sun to shade, dry to moist • Great for woodland or sunny lawns • Rhizomatous • Highly valuable for pollinators! 27 Weeds? Fragaria spp. Fragaria vesca and virginica • Woodland and meadow strawberry • Sun (V. virginiana) to shade (V. vesca) • Dry to moist soils • Flowers in spring, berries in summer • Sure beats Kentucky blue grass… • Support 75 different species of lepidoptera! 26 The Best Hummingbird Plants 25 Trumpet Honeysuckle Lonicera sempervirens • Sun to part shade • Average to moist soils • Drought tolerant once established (tough) • Blooms profusely for an extended period of time • Loved by hummingbirds during the summer and other birds during the fall and winter 24 Bee Balm Monarda didyma • Makes a fabulous tea • Oswego tea • Best in moist soils 23 Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis • Loved by butterflies and hummingbirds alike Lobelia siphilitica • Designed for bees 22 Shrubs 21 Viburnum spp. Viburnum acerifolium • Best choice for dry shade conditions Viburnum lantanoides • Showiest flowers (V. opulus) • Naked buds, excellent fall foliage Viburnum nudum • Excellent fall foliage Viburnum opulus var. americanum • Great for the wet areas • Edible berries Viburnum prunifolium • Tree(ish) form • Very dry-tolerant 20 Spicebush Spicebush swallowtail Lindera benzoin • Young leaves and twigs can be used to make tea, • During the revolutionary war Americans used the berries in place of allspice and the leaves and twigs in place of tea • Though many birds will eat the fruits of Lindera, veery and wood thrush appear to search them out • Host for the Promethea moth and the spicebush swallowtail 19 Red Twig Dogwood Swida sericea • Not to be confused with S. sanguinia • Flowers for various insects, leaves for various lepedoptera, fruits for birds • Can be cut back as needed • Swida amomum, racemosum… 18 17 Serviceberry Amelanchier spp. • Common species include A. arborea, A. bartramiana, A. canadensis, A. laevis,… • Habitats range from meadows to forests to mountain sides. Sun to part shade, dry to moist • Berries for birds and humans 16 Raspberries and Such • The mourning warbler makes its • Rubushome in forests allegheniensis with a thick understory of Rubus species • (blackberry)The early hairstreak adults feed on • Rubusthe flowers idaeus of Rubus (red • Ring-neck pheasants, ruffled and raspberry)sharp-tailed grouse, wild turkey, northern bobwhites, woodcocks, • Rubusblue jays, tufted occidentalis titmice, veeries , wood thrush, robins, catbirds, (blackthrashers, cedarraspberry) waxwings, yellow - • Rubusbreasted chats, odoratus scarlet tanagers, cardinals, grosbeaks, rufous-sided (floweringtowhees, sparrows, orioles, grackles finches, chipmunks, raccoons, raspberry)squirrels and so forth … 15 Winterberry Holly Ilex verticillata • Sun to part shade • Average to wet soils • Winter food source • Dioecious • Turkey Ilex glabra • Inkberry 14 Blueberries Vaccinium corymbosum • Highbush blueberry • Sun to part shade, prefers moist sites Vaccinium angustifolium • Lowbush blueberry • Sun to shade, tolerant of dry soils Vaccinium pallidum • Hillside blueberry • Sun to shade, tolerant of dry soils 13 And don’t forget trees! • The absolute best herbaceous genus you can plant when it comes to pollinator value is Solidago, the goldenrods, which support 115 different species of lepetoptera. Aster comes in second at 112 species supported. (Tallamy) • Anyone want to guess how many species of lepetoptera are supported 534 by an oak? That’s a lot of bird food! 12 Red Cedar Juniperus virginiana • Loved by cedar waxwings 11 Poplar, aspen Populus spp. Populus tremuloides • Quaking aspen Populus grandidentata • Big-tooth aspen Populus deltoides • Cottonwood Red Mulberry Morus rubra • Remarkably variable leaves • Fruit for birds or people • Not to be confused with M. alba 8 Black Cherry Prunus serotina • Fruit’s are great for passing birds and humans alike • Promethea moth, small-eyed sphinx, wild cherry sphinx (and P. americana), banded tussock moth, black-etched prominent, spotted apatelodes, yellow- necked caterpillar, tiger swallowtail, cecropia moth, saddleback caterpillar moth (Prunus spp.), io moth (and P. americana), striped hairstreak (Prunus spp.), red-spotted purple (Prunus spp.) • These are all major protein sources for our birds Prunus serotina , virginianablack cherry., choke cherry. 6 Quercus alba, white oak. Cumberland count, VA 5 Pollinators supported by the “Big Five” Trees (Betula, Populus, Prunus, Quercus, and Salix) American dagger moth Dreamy duskwing Rosy maple moth Andrena (mining bees) Four-horned sphinx Saddleback caterpillar A. andreoides Giant leopard moth moth A. bisalicis Great ash sphinx Small-eyed sphinx A. erythrogaster Horace's duskywing Spotted apatelodes A. fenningeri Imperial moth Striped hairstreak A. illinoiensis Io moth Tiger swallowtail A. mariae Juvenals duskywing Viceroy A. salictaria Large tolype Virginia tiger moth A. sigmundi Luna moth Waved sphinx Banded hairstreak (Q. Mourning cloak White-marked hairstreak alba) Pink-striped White-marked tussock Banded tussock moth Polyphemus moth moth Bees Promethea moth Wild cherry sphinx Big poplar sphinx Red-banded hairstreak Yellow-necked caterpillar Black-etched prominent Red-spotted purple And roughly 500 more… Cecropia moth This list available upon request And be lazy in the cold season! And salamanders! 3 Building Healthy Habitat • Plant more natives • Kill your lawn • Avoid chemicals • Remove invasives • Talk to your neighbors/municipalities • Don’t waste the good stuff 2 So what can we really do? There is great power in large numbers of people making small changes 1 Questions? Photo credits • Massachusetts Butterfly Club: A Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association • Wikipedia • Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program • Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (Wildflower.org) Lepidopteran species count credit Doug Tallamy and his graduate students Dan Jaffe [email protected] .