Grow Caterpillars, Feed Baby Birds

     Chickadee with caterpillar © Alok Singhal some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

Our local birds are in serious decline. The adult birds that are visit our feeders in fall and winter will start nesting in early spring. When they do, they will seek millions of caterpillars to feed their young. That’s right – the babies don’t eat seeds. Their throats are tender and they need thick, soft, nutritious caterpillars (think of them as ‘sausages’ for baby birds).  But caterpillars are increasingly rare, and many of our local baby birds face starvation each spring. How can we save them?

Caterpillars grow primarily on native plants like the ones listed here: https://bit.ly/Feed-Baby-Birds. Just as monarch caterpillars need native milkweed, checkerspot caterpillars need bee plant (scorophularia californica) and monkeyflower, acmon blues need buckwheat and lupine, sphinx moth caterpillars need clarkias.

In short, we need to grow the plants that grow the caterpillars that grow the baby birds.  Here in the SF Bay Area there are several hundred native butterflies and moths that specialize on particular native plants (see item #3 below), let’s get started and grow them!

Five Ways to Save Baby Birds in the Spring (start now!)   

1)   Read: If you have just 10 minutes, read this New York Times article about the issue and solution: If https://bit.ly/Chickadees-Guide

2)    Watch:  Check out this talk by New York Times Bestseller Doug Tallamy, who wrote “Nature’s Best Hope” that will inspire you to grow caterpillars:  https://bit.ly/Tallamy-CAPlants

3)   Plant: Whether you have a garden or simply a balcony with a pot of soil, you can start growing ‘baby bird food” in the form of caterpillars. 

      Here is a super-colorful guide to the "Fabulous  Fifteen" - the very top performing California natives that will provide the greatest number of caterpillars in your garden: https://bit.ly/Feed-Baby-Birds

      You can find a longer list here:  https://bit.ly/Tallamy-Bay-Area-Natives  and then learn more about the plants here: https://bit.ly/Calscape.  

      See the Audubon Society’s database of plants that provide insects, berries and seeds for adult birds: https://bit.ly/Native-Plants-Audubon-USA 

4)      Share: In just a few moments each day, you can share information, native plants and native seeds with friends and neighbors. Build a “butterfly corridor” in your area. Butterflies, moths and bees sense plants by the natural chemical compounds those plants emit, so patches of plants spread over an area will “send out a signal” and draw them to your garden! 

     Chickadee © Zoe Ferraris some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

Remember: Never use pesticides.  Even the organic ones kill caterpillars that feed baby birds. And even aphids serve as baby bird food, so try to leave them on your plants as much as possible. Encourage your neighbors to stop using pesticides that will kill your butterflies and bees when they visit those gardens. Avoid herbicides which will damage the ecosystem you are trying to build, and pose health risks for humans, too.

Chickadee with fledgeling © wingedtoad some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC)

Easy To Grow California Native Plants That Feed Caterpillars (that feed baby birds):

As mentioned above, you can click on this handy guide with interactive links to the TOP 30 California native plants that support the most caterpillars.  Most of these are drought resistant, many are evergreen, all of them are beautiful and will dramatically increase biodiversity in your garden:

https://bit.ly/Feed-Baby-Birds

These plants also provide nectar and pollen to butterflies, Moths and Bees

Details: The interactive guide enables you to click the plant name to see some of the butterflies and moths that lay their eggs on them (and be sure to choose the variety that grows naturally in your area, using the Calscape.org address field). 

The titles also include generic name, Latin name, precise species and total number of butterflies and moths that lay their eggs on them per Doug Tallamy, Entomologist at University of Delaware and author of New York Times Bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope”

Pictured below: Manzanita (Arctostaphylos species) (c) Jennifer Dirking;  California lilac (ceanothus species) (c) Jennifer Dirking;  Bolander's Sunflower (Helianthus species) (c) Klamath-Siskiou Seeds; California Buckwheat (Eriogonum species) (c) Kueda iNaturalist