Songbirds Need Native Plants
by Bonnie Allen
Like songbirds? Then you’ll love native plants.
Birds eat lots of things--seeds, flower nectar, berries. But in order for birds to stick around and raise a family, they need protein--lots of it--to feed their chicks. Protein mostly comes in the form of caterpillars: The little fat grubs are chock full of it. Douglass Tallamy, scientist and author of Nature’s Best Hope, observed the caterpillar consumption of his backyard chickadees. He estimated that each nest requires 300 to more than 500 caterpillars each day for the chicks to make it to adulthood, depending on family size.
Caterpillars fatten on leaves from trees and other plants. But caterpillars don’t grow on just any plants. Caterpillars have adapted to their environment in an evolutionary dance that spans millennia. Caterpillars in any location are adapted to the native plants they have associated with over thousands of years.
Sadly, most ornamental plants are not native to a given environment, and will not support many caterpillars. This is great for people who want to have pest-free plants; and landscapers understandably tend to consider caterpillars pests. But it’s not so great for songbirds. Have you noticed that as more and more fields get converted to housing developments, fewer and fewer songbirds have shown up in our backyards? In a landscape devoid of native plants, there simply isn’t enough for birds to eat.
This tiny valley oak seedling recently appeared in my back yard. How big will it get during my lifetime?
Some native plants are hosts to so many insects that they are considered “keystone” species. The champion keystone trees are oaks. It’s not unusual for an oak tree to support as many as 500 different species of caterpillars. That compares to one or two for most ornamental plants. Other keystone species include native cherries and native willows, as well as smaller plants that host caterpillars and the beautiful butterflies they grow into. Even natives that do not host many caterpillars usually host far more than their ornamental counterparts.
Why not consider adding a few natives to your landscaping? You can find out what natives grow best in Sonoma County by going to calflora.org. Many local nurseries have a section for native plants, and some, like Mostly Natives in Point Reyes, specialize in them. In addition, check out the California Native Plant Society sales in the fall--the best time to plant natives. The next sale at our Sonoma County chapter is October 9.
Let’s bring back our native birds!
When I moved here 40 years ago, this oak tree was a sappling, as was I. Now it hosts birds, squirrels, insects and other native life.
