Dennis and Tweeters,

Another side to birds' fruit consumption - one that hasn't been mentioned in the tweeters posts so far I think - is birds' incidental role in planting fruiting shrubs and trees.

Where we live along Scatter Creek, we tried several means of starting new blue elderberry shrubs, which are a fairly common native plant in the immediate area. Our efforts failed, but the local birds and probably the chipmunks have succeeded wonderfully. Our yard now generates more new blue elderberry starts than we can possibly maintain, and we have allowed several to grow quite large - up to 15 ft. in a couple of years. I suspect the Western Scrub-Jays in particular of being some of our primary arborists, as they are in the yard frequently, and are present every day of the year. Now we can watch birds harvesting blue elderberries in late summer to early fall, after they have already consumed nearly all of the serviceberry and black hawthorn fruits, also abundant here. Still lot of snowberries available even now.

Bob

Bob Sundstrom
ixoreus at scattercreek.com
Tenino, Washington

----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis Paulson
To: Tweeters
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 6:41 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] follow-up on berry interesting


I think I wasn't clear enough in my message, as some people have responded by telling me which native plants are used by birds, something I knew. What I really wanted to know was how many yards have native plants that fruit-eating birds are visiting. Seems to me that the vast majority of plants that robins use right in the city are non-native, same true with waxwings in eastern Washington. I assume the native plants that have bird-dispersed fruits are presumably much used out in the country, but you sure don't see many of them in people's yards. The note from Ruth Sullivan confirmed this. She wrote about all the native plants she had planted, very commendable, then mentioned the robins feeding on her pyracantha and cotoneaster! Perhaps the non-natives, especially if they are cultivars that have been bred for it, produce more fruits than the natives, perhaps also later in winter, and are more important in supporting flocks of robins and other fruit-eaters here in winter in urban/suburban areas. It may be that the native shrubs and trees that grow scattered through the woods are important, but we just don't see concentrations of birds at them because the plants aren't that abundant.


Madrones are a good example of an important native species, and they grow in large enough stands that sometimes there are great numbers of frugivores in them, but they are local in distribution (and, I believe, declining in some areas), and those stands aren't usually in people's yards. Ed Swan's mention of 15-20 species in madrones boggles my mind a bit, though, and I wonder if you would provide a list, Ed. I've seen Steller's Jays, Band-tailed Pigeons, Cedar Waxwings, Varied Thrushes, and robins, and I'm curious about the species list beyond that.


I didn't mention hollies, which are probably as important as madrones in attracting huge flocks of robins. Hollies are planted in big stands in some areas, and I've seen hundreds and hundreds of robins in them, as well as other fruit-eating species. I've always thought that if you wanted to spend time looking for Dusky and Eyebrowed Thrushes and the like, you should hang out in holly groves. Probably madrone groves also.


Thanks, everyone, for all the great response!


Dennis

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net








------------------------------------------------------------------------------


_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters