What do they eat?

text and photos : Norma A. Hubbard (December 2019)

When I first started feeding birds, I was told by more than one birder that I shouldn’t feed birds in the summer because there is plenty of food for birds. Yes, that may be, but if I wanted to have birds all the time, I needed to keep them well fed. However, this made me think about food in the winter. With the landscape covered in snow, if I wasn’t filling the birdfeeders every day, what would the birds eat in winter? You might be surprised to realize there are plenty of seeds and berries when we stop and look around us. There are dried grapes, service berries and various tree and flower seeds. One such source of food comes from a beautiful tree, the winterberry (Ilex verticillata). Winterberry not only helps to feed the birds during those cold months when food is scarce, it also provides a splash of bright red colour while the world is under a blanket of white snow.

Winterberry is a holly and is native to Canada. It is the largest growing holly in our area, but it will only grow to about three or four meters tall and tends to be more shrub-like than tree size. Unlike English holly, or what most of us think of as Christmas holly, winterberry are deciduous so the leaves do not stay green all winter. Winterberry produces pretty, white flowers in the spring that provide nectar for insects, who in return pollinate the flowers. Winterberry is a dioecious species, meaning flowers are either male or female, with only one type per plant. Plants of each sex must be in close proximity to each other – within about 15 to 20 meters – in order for plants to produce fruit. It takes only one male tree to pollinate several female trees in an area.

In the summer, winterberry has dark green leaves and the berries are round and green, like little apples. By fall, the berries are plump and bright red or red-orange. The berries help with the survival of many birds that remain here all winter. Berries will shrivel and dry during the winter months. Any berries not eaten by spring, will provide much needed food for migrating or early arriving birds.

Winterberry grows mostly in wet or swampy areas, but will grow in other soils. They will flower in full sun or partial shade. As these trees are very decorative, many gardeners plant them to add colour to their winter gardens. I have several trees growing on my property, all planted by Mother Nature. Winterberry transplants easily and plants can be grown from seed, but it is difficult and it takes a long time (about three years). I have to admit, the first time I saw the red berries, I was tempted to dig up the plant and move it to my backyard. In the end, like so many other native plants on my land, I let nature take care of itself. It has grown over the years and is now a thicket with plenty of berries. I walk by it every day and enjoy its beauty right where it is.

While nature never ceases to amaze me as it provides for itself, I will continue to feed the birds all year as I do enjoy watching them … plus I will continue to enjoy seeing bright red berries in an otherwise stark white landscape. And so, as the cold winter settles in around us and another year is coming to an end, I hope everyone can find some joy in nature.

Source: Canadian Wildlife Federation [online]