Plants for Birds (click here for full article)

How can plants help birds? Did you know that most songbirds rear their chicks on insect caterpillars? Caterpillars are little packets of protein, fat, and nutrients and in a garden with native plants they will be abundant. University of Delaware professor, Dr. Doug Tallamy, has shown that a pair of Black-Capped Chickadees need to catch between 6000 and 9000 little caterpillars to raise a single clutch. That is a lot of caterpillars!

Having the right native plants in your home landscape can help birds find the food they need to raise their young.

North American plants and insects have coevolved over millennia to have a complex relationship. Every native plant has some form of insect that uses the leaves as food for its own development and to protect themselves plants have natural chemical defense systems that keep the insects from having an overall net-negative impact

The insect larvae either go on to become adult moths or butterflies, etc.

and they are all part of the food web as bird food.

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Plants from outside this ecosystem, which were introduced by humans and planted in our home landscapes within the last hundred years or so, and are not naturally found in North America do not contribute to this food web because the native insect populations haven't evolved to use them as food so therefore, the non-native plants don't support native caterpillar development.

Some of the best plants to help birds are native trees. Dr. Tallamy's research has shown that the trees which support the most insect life are NATIVE varieties of: Oaks (support 534 species of Lepidoptera - butterflies and moths), Willows (support 456 species) Cherries (support 456 species), Birches (support 413 species). If you can plant any of these in your garden you will help birds and insects.

Plants that have fruit and seed heads also provide important food for birds as they migrate and to sustain them during winter months.

Audubon has a great tool to help you find plants native to Vermont that support birds. It will generate a list and tell you which local nurseries carry the plants. Click here to find PLANTS FOR BIRDS