Wax Myrtle and Yellow-rumped Warblers Are Made for Each Other

By Jody Walthall

We can welcome winter migrating birds to our yards by planting American (native) trees and shrubs to create habitat. Birds need insects, berries and seeds, as well as cover, that native plants offer.

Cool autumn temperatures bring winter migrating birds to our area. The greater the percentage of native plants in your yard, the more birds will be able to thrive there. Research by nationally celebrated entomologist Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, has shown that 96% of land birds feed their young insects that rely on native plants for sustenance. Native plants are the base of the ecological food web. In addition, his research indicates that when a landscape dips below 80% native plants, the reproduction rate of birds begins to drop. Thus, we can all make a difference in our yards by increasing the percentage of native plants each year.

Insects are important for some birds year-round, but other birds depend on berries to make it through the winter. Florida’s state bird, the northern mockingbird, eats primarily insects in spring and summer. Late summer through winter its diet is heavy in berries from pokeweed, elderberry, arrowwood, bluestem palmetto, American beautyberry and hollies, among many others.

Wax myrtle grown as a small tree. Photo by Jody Walthall.

Wax myrtle is another native shrub, having berries ripening in October and November. Unlike the bright red berries of holly, wax myrtle berries are not real visible. The very small, hard berries are arranged in clusters along the stem and are covered in a thin gray waxy coating. Two small birds that breed in the boreal forests of Canada, the ruby-crowned kinglet and yellow-rumped warbler, relish wax myrtle berries here in winter and are closely affiliated with this shrub. The birds get nourishment from the berries; the wax myrtle shrub receives seed dispersal service via the digestive tract of the birds in return, delivered complete with fertilizer.

The yellow-rumped warbler used to be known as myrtle warbler because it is so fond of wax myrtle berries. On our neighborhood morning walks, we have been hearing the distinctive “chips” of yellow-rumped warblers coming from the thick wax myrtle bushes around McCord Pond. Wax myrtle berries are an important source of winter food for this warbler, as they are for the kinglet.

Speaking of kinglets, last Christmas season at Native Nurseries, our supply of wax myrtle berries for decorating wreaths was discovered by a ruby-crowned kinglet. This diminutive bird, in its constantly flitting manner, put on quite a show for staff and customers alike as it stole wax myrtle berries from wreaths and then discovered its reflection in a nearby silver gazing globe. For several days it could be seen flashing its normally hidden red feathers on its head at the “interloper” in the globe.

Gray catbirds and white-eyed vireos are also known to feed on wax myrtle berries. Apparently not all birds can digest the waxy coating. Another winter visitor that sometimes depends on wax myrtle berries, along with holly and other winter fruit, is the tree swallow. During much of the winter these birds can obtain enough insects, but during sharp cold spells when there are few insects to be found, they will descend in numbers for a feeding frenzy on wax myrtle and holly.

As a landscape plant in your yard, wax myrtle will be a fast-growing, large evergreen shrub. Sometimes it is used as a small, multiple trunk tree. It prefers full sun, but light dappled shade is fine. Wax myrtle does best when allowed to grow to its full size and natural shape. That said, it responds well to periodic pruning, especially on old growth. Only female plants will produce berries, but all wax myrtle will provide excellent cover for birds.

North Florida still has a fair amount of native forest of both pines and hardwoods. Tallahassee is one of the most forested cities in the country. Our urban forest consists primarily of native species, though we have problems with Chinese camphor, Chinese elm, Chinese tallow, mimosa, tree Ligustrum, and Taiwan cherry. You can improve your yard by removing these space-hogging invasive alien plants and replacing them with American native species. You will be doing the birds a favor!

Learn more about the importance of native species for wildlife when Dr. Doug Tallamy speaks in Tallahassee on March 19, 2020 (location to be announced). Dr. Tallamy’s presentation is titled, The Insect/Native Plant Connection: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants.

Act Locally to Support Birds and the Places they Live

In the last 50 years, more than 1 in 4 birds has disappeared across North America. The journal Science recently reported that wild bird populations in the continental U.S. and Canada have declined by almost 30% since 1970.

That is one year before I graduated from high school and about the time that I started using binoculars to watch birds. This is grim news indeed.

Though I have been a member of the Audubon Society for a long time, I recently became more involved by joining the board of our local organization, Apalachee Audubon Society.

Participating in a local Audubon Society chapter is a good place to start if one wants to do something on a local or regional level that positively impacts birds and the ecosystems in which they live. We also need to push our elected officials on broad policy, but by acting locally one feels a better sense of accomplishment.

For instance, we have an active Conservation Committee that has lobbied for funding for conservation easements of large land holdings along the ecologically important Apalachicola River and for outright purchases through Florida Forever of other large landholdings in the Panhandle. This same committee supports protection of springs and reviews plans of our Northwest Florida Water Management District.

Lake Elberta Wildflower Planting Workday. Photo by Harbria Gardner

Our chapter was recently recognized as Chapter of the Year at last month’s Florida Audubon Assembly in Gainesville. To attract a younger and more diverse population, our president Peter Kleinhenz successfully wrote three grant proposals over the last 2 years, two with National Audubon and one with Florida Power and Light.

These grants have enabled us to hire interns at both FSU and FAMU and to purchase native plants to revegetate the shoreline and uplands at Lake Elberta Park on Lake Bradford Road just south of Gaines Street. We have worked cooperatively with Tallahassee Parks and Recreation as well as the surrounding neighborhoods.

Last Sunday I volunteered at a planting event organized by our current two interns, Harbria Gardner from FAMU and Nelson Ball from FSU. I couldn’t have been more impressed by their planning and execution. Sixteen volunteers planted over 200 wildflowers in less than 3 hours. A job well done!

A bald eagle flew over the lake, 2 wood storks probed its edges and a small group of ruddy ducks swam by as we worked. Harbria and Nelson are planning more workdays and have already conducted an invasive plant removal event at the park.

Lake Elberta is just one of our habitat improvement and environmental education programs. A small team of volunteers formed a Bird Club that meets every other week with the afterschool program at Pineview Elementary School. We also support environmental education programs at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge by providing funding for buses at Title 1 schools and provide Audubon Adventure kits for interested teachers.

We hold monthly program meetings that are informative and uplifting. Our next program on Nov. 21 is for pure enjoyment of birds – “Two Seasons Birding in Japan” with Bernie and Chris Grossman. We all know that Japan is an industrialized, first world country made up of several islands off the coast of Asia. Most of us don’t realize that these islands are quite mountainous and forested with the human population concentrated in a relatively small portion of the land. This makes for excellent birding.

Join accomplished photographer Bernie Grossman and his wife Chris to learn about the birds of Japan and their habitats in two different seasons. You do not have to be a member to attend an Audubon program.

If you find the news of declining bird populations daunting, get involved by attending one of our interesting programs, birding field trips, or volunteer with the interns at Lake Elberta. You will be most welcome.

Dead trees part of healthy forests and backyard habitats

My earliest experience with a snag happened when I was a college student rambling through a longleaf pine-turkey oak sandhill forest. I discovered a Brown-headed Nuthatch coming and going from a small cavity in a dead turkey oak tree that stood no taller than me. It was easy to watch and photograph at that height.

That experience sold me on the value of snags.

Snags, either standing dead trees or partially dead trees, provide cavities for nesting birds such as woodpeckers, owls, chickadees, bluebirds, titmice, wrens, nuthatches, wood ducks and others. In addition, snags provide habitat and food for all sorts of other creatures from beetles to frogs to denning mammals like raccoons and opossums. They also serve as perching and roosting sites.

When snags fall to the ground, they are called logs and further provide habitat for fungi, spiders, beetles, termites, ants, grubs, worms and snails, not to mention the reptiles and amphibians, birds, mice and other mammals that feed on them. Decaying logs are essential to the health of our forest and backyard soils and nutrient cycling.

Dead trees and branches are important to forests, but they are also important in our own suburban and urban yards. Homeowners may consider allowing some dead trees to rot and decay in place, as long as there are no safety concerns. In our urban Tallahassee yard, we have had our arborist cut dead pines at 20 feet and these snags have become refuges for wildlife.

When our children were in early elementary school, they were excited to find a pileated woodpecker hammering away at eye level on a large pine snag. They “sneaked” up on it to take a photo. What an experience for young children. Now 25 years later, the remnant of this snag that eventually became a log on our urban woodland floor is still there, nearly decayed to rich soil.

There are a few other things you can do to enrich wildlife habitat concerning dead wood. You can create snags by girdling live trees, especially if they are overcrowded in a wooded situation. Also allow some downed logs to decay over the years.

Barred owl nestlings in a rotted tree trunk. (Photo: Sandy Beck)

Smaller diameter dead wood (branches and limbs) can also be collected and placed in a mound to create a brush pile where birds can seek shelter and escape hawks and other predators and where insects and other wildlife can live.

My husband, Jody Walthall, even “planted” a dead well-branched cedar snag in our bird garden to provide perching places for birds because our 25-year old blue beech tree, the main feature of the garden, blew over in a hurricane.

We planted a young blue beech, but it will take time for this tree to provide much perching space. Likewise, friends Vanessa and Richard Crisler “planted” a snag by their backyard pond for dragonflies to perch on. Imagine their surprise when they found an immature bald eagle perched there. In Betton Hills!