GETTING BIRDS
through winter takes more than bird feeders and brush
piles. It also takes a few spinach plants. But this spinach
is not the green, leafy vegetable. To wildlife gardeners,
a spinach plant is a tree or shrub that has bitter berries.
Like those of us who prefer decadent foods over healthier
alternatives, birds will flock first to ice cream plants,
such as flowering dogwoods, and avoid spinach plants,
such as hawthorns and sumacs, for as long as possible.
Only when the coldest days of the year set in and food
sources are exhausted do birds begin to eat their spinach.
At that point, the long-lasting berries can truly be a
lifesaver.
"Fruits are very important for overwintering birds,"
says Christopher Whelan, an avian biologist with the Illinois
Natural History Survey. According to Whelan, many insectivorous
birds change their diet in fall and winter. Woodpeckers,
thrashers, quail, robins, waxwings, mockingbirds, bluebirds,
grouse, catbirds, thrushes and even chickadees and titmice
turn to berries when the weather turns cold.
The best winter-fruiting plants for wildlife are native
trees and shrubs. "Many of them produce prodigious
fruit," says Whelan. Natives are also easy to care
for once they are established. Dozens—even hundreds—of
varieties are available.
Try cultivating some of the following plants in your
garden. Nurseries and native plant societies can help
you select the species best suited to your part of the
country.
If you live in the southernmost sections of the country,
now is an excellent time to set out fruiting plants. Gardeners
in the northern tier and mountain states can plant in
the spring. But in the rest of the country, you should
wait until autumn before adding a little spinach to your
backyard.
Sumac:
For years sumacs were considered trash trees by gardeners.
But now these widespread natives are cultivated for their
fiery autumn foliage and showy seed heads. They are also
without equal as a winter emergency food for a wide range
of birds and mammals. Some 15 species occur in North America.
Winged sumac is native to the eastern half of the United
States. Smooth sumac extends into the West. In the Southwest,
plant little-leaf, aromatic or evergreen sumacs. Poison
sumac is not really sumac and should
be avoided as it's more closely related to poison ivy.
Holly:
"Probably the best winter berry plants are hollies,"
says Wynn Anderson, of the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at
the University of Texas–El Paso. Possum haw, a deciduous
holly with abundant fruit, is found throughout the southeastern
states. Another is winterberry, the hardiest of the hollies,
flourishing in New England and eastern Canada. Its crimson
berries improve with age and are popular with birds after
a frost or two. Three other native hollies—American,
yaupon and inkberry—are evergreen, providing protection
from snow, rain and wind. Cluster female holly bushes
with a male to ensure a good crop of fruit.
Saltbush:
Several species of this desert shrub are native to the
Southwest and California. Anderson recommends four-winged
saltbush. "It's excellent for quail as well as for
a number of other critters," he says. All of the
saltbushes are drought tolerant and prefer well-drained
soils and full sun.
Hackberry:
Nearly 50 species of birds—ranging from roadrunners
to titmice—eat the pea-sized fruit of the common
hackberry. Related to the elm, this species is one of
the few trees that thrives from the edge of the Rocky
Mountains to the Atlantic seaboard. Eventually reaching
40 to 60 feet tall in ideal situations, the common hackberry
is durable and can be planted in urban areas and in poor
soils.
American Beautyberry:
This hardy four- to six-foot shrub has purple or magenta
fruit, which can last until mid-winter. Native in much
of the eastern United States, beauty-berry is a favorite
of mockingbirds and several other species of birds.
Viburnum:
Several native viburnums have berries that persist long
into the winter. The fruit of possumhaw viburnum starts
out chartreuse in the summer then gradually changes color,
first to white, then pink, and finally to navy blue. It
is native to the eastern coastal plain from Connecticut
south to Florida and west to Texas. Highbush cranberry
and nannyberry are two viburnums that grow across the
northern United States.
Mountain Ash:
As the name suggests, mountain ash prefers cool, moist
habitats. American mountain ash, usually a large shrub
or small tree, ranges from eastern Canada south into the
Appalachian Mountains. Sitka mountain ash is a western
species. Both have showy white blossoms in the spring.
After a few freeze-and-thaw cycles, the orange-red fruit
attracts grosbeaks, grouse and waxwings.
Hawthorn:
Dozens of species of hawthorns are found in the United
States and Canada. With thorns and a tendency to clump
into thickets, these small trees do double duty, providing
secure nesting sites in summer and plentiful berries in
winter. Cedar waxwings, ruffed grouse and fox sparrows
all devour the plants' scarlet berries. James Romer, a
horticulturist for Iowa State University Extension, recommends
Washington hawthorn in the East and Midwest. Another possibility
is a cultivated variety of green hawthorn known as
winter king.
Bayberry:
Most species of bayberry, including northern bayberry
and Pacific wax myrtle, are vital to winter wildlife.
In the Southeast, tree swallows and other birds swarm
to southern wax myrtle if a late cold front strikes in
spring. Wax myrtle is easy to grow, tolerating a wide
range of conditions.
