For my inaugural column featuring a native plant for birds, I have chosen the quite common black cherry (Prunus serotina) for two reasons. It is considered a keystone species, which means it has a disproportionately large effect on the abundance and diversity of other species, like insects, in an ecosystem. There are 247 species of caterpillars that feed on plants in the Prunus genus in my Tallahassee zip code. Entomologist, ecologist, and author Doug Tallamy considers black cherry and other native Prunus species as his #2 pick of ecological gold in the landscape with oaks rated #1. Visit National Wildlife Federation’s Plant Finder and type in your zip code to find out what native plants nurture the most caterpillars in your area.
You may wonder why I am writing about caterpillars when this article is supposed to be about birds. Let us look at one species – the Cecropia Moth. An individual female lays up to 300 eggs on its host plants of mainly black cherry, birch, or maple. Of those 300 caterpillars that hatch from these eggs, how many live to reproduce as a moth? Only two or three! What happens to all the others? They are consumed as high-quality protein by spiders, lizards, wasps and yes, birds – a complex food web with a native plant at its base. These caterpillars are produced when the leaves are young and tender, a time when birds are busy searching for insects, primarily caterpillars, to feed their young.
The second reason for choosing black cherry for this first issue is because it is a plant of my childhood. Growing up on the south shore of Long Island, I have fond memories associated with a grove of black cherries in our front yard. It is, indeed, a beautiful tree with grayish-black textured bark, and its long, slender densely packed white flower clusters that bear nectar and pollen for native bees and honeybees. The flowers are followed by abundant small dark purplish red to black fruit called drupes that are highly favored by birds from thrushes and woodpeckers to sparrows, tanagers, and bluebirds. And it even has nice fall color.
You can purchase a black cherry from a plant nursery but if you look around at the small seedlings that pop up in your yard, there is a good chance one may be black cherry. The copious amounts of fruit provide nourishment for birds and then birds do their part by dispersing the seeds, after they have been processed through their digestive tracts, to old fields, hedgerows, and urban and suburban yards. Black cherry will grow in sun or partial shade, 70 to 90 feet tall, in average to well-drained soil as far south as the Tampa/Orlando area. There are butterflies such as the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and Red-spotted Purple that are associated with black cherry, but moth species produce a good many more caterpillars. One that comes to mind are tent caterpillars which are highly attractive to Yellow-billed Cuckoos.
What you plant in your yard matters. Your landscaping can be mere decoration, or it can be habitat for birds and other wildlife. It is up to you.
