I heartily second Meena's encouragement to plant native plants—especially those that provide food in the form of fruit, seeds, or insects— and create native habitats for birds! Marie
Marie Read Wildlife Photography 452 Ringwood Road Freeville NY 13068 USA Phone 607-539-6608 e-mail m...@cornell.edu http://www.marieread.com Now on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marie-Read-Wildlife-Photography/104356136271727 ________________________________________ From: bounce-44814036-5851...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-44814036-5851...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of Meena Haribal [m...@cornell.edu] Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2012 9:05 PM To: Ann Mitchell; M Kardon Cc: Nancy W Dickinson; CAYUGABIRDS-L Subject: RE: [cayugabirds-l] forsythia for birds Hi all, I am a little bit concerned about promoting Forsythia for birds. They are just good for landing and hiding for birds near bird feeders. But they really are not such healthy food for birds. http://www.ehow.com/list_6019009_pests-forsythia-bush.html Forsythia is promoted as the plant with no pests at all. If you want birds and habitats for them why not plant some native plants. There is "Native plants for native birds" published by our on bird club for guidance. You should look up some local plants that are good for birds and their food - insects that feed on them. For example all kinds of dogwoods - Red Dozier, and Gray Dogwood are excellent plants, they produce fruits which are eaten by birds during fall migration, that is when the fruits are ready. But they host at least some known thirty species of moths and these moths as adults and as larvae are excellent food for birds and their young. Some of these moths include beautiful Polyphemus moth, Dogwood Thyatirid, Prominents, many geometrids, which are found in spring and summer. Of course some of these moths/larvae may not be directly useful to all birds but are of indirect use. Their caterpillars are beautiful with variety of shapes and structures and some of the adults are just awesome if you are looking for beauty. I feel pained that native habitats are being destroyed and artificial habitats are being created. So why not create real habitat, I know it is very hard to create and maintain, but at least one can give a try. Meena Meena Haribal Ithaca NY 14850 http://haribal.org/ http://meenaharibal.blogspot.com/ ________________________________ -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: Welcome and Basics<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave<http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Archives: The Mail Archive<http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> Surfbirds<http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net<http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> Please submit your observations to eBird<http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>! -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --