UK Berries - what eats what? (1 Viewer)

StephenHampshire · Dec 16, 2018

Seen my first Winter Blackcap in my Southen UK(Hampshire) garden today, a nicely plumaged male. He was helping himself to some berries from a Lonicera Japonica plant. These small black berries were next to an abundance of red fruits on a cotoneaster, which the Blackcap showed no interest in.
I wondered what other members find are the favourite berries for the various birds they get in their gardens?

PYRTLE · Dec 16, 2018

Blackcaps feed on " Snowberries" ( Symphoricarpos ) in autumn and early winter, and some of the softer Rowan " chinsensis" if there's any left after the thrushes have devoured them. Cotoneaster and Berberis also is popular and Mahonia for Blackbirds and Mistle Thrush. Holly and Ivy (native) are also good for thrushes and latterly Woodpigeon.

Andy Adcock · Dec 16, 2018

PYRTLE said:
Blackcaps feed on " Snowberries" ( Symphoricarpos ) in autumn and early winter, and some of the softer Rowan " chinsensis" if there's any left after the thrushes have devoured them. Cotoneaster and Berberis also is popular and Mahonia for Blackbirds and Mistle Thrush. Holly and Ivy (native) are also good for thrushes and latterly Woodpigeon.

I've noticed that in times of plenty, Snowberries are the last to go and are often left untouched, Rowan seems to be favourite with Pyrocantha slightly favoured over the Snowberries.

StephenHampshire · Dec 16, 2018

PYRTLE said:
Blackcaps feed on " Snowberries" ( Symphoricarpos ) in autumn and early winter, and some of the softer Rowan " chinsensis" if there's any left after the thrushes have devoured them. Cotoneaster and Berberis also is popular and Mahonia for Blackbirds and Mistle Thrush. Holly and Ivy (native) are also good for thrushes and latterly Woodpigeon.

Unfortunately our neighbour has just had a new fence which resulted in the loss of a large mature bush of flowering and berrying ivy, which as well as providing a late source of nectar for bees and berries for the blackbirds in winter also was a nest site from time to time for wrens!
The snowberries in my garden are normally untouched!

PYRTLE · Dec 16, 2018

That's such a shame but the way of the modern world, clean and tidy. Perhaps you could plant a few berry specimens you're side of the fence for the future. When I was a kid in the 1960s all the houses had front garden hedges, principally of privet ( some flowering ) and other species which would give shelter and nesting sites for song thrush and blackbird in the mature laurel. The elms used to have a breeding colony of house sparrows with their domed grass nests and the denser mature native hedgerows, dunnock, wren and robin. The avenue of flowering cherry had goldfinch and chaffinch nests.
Only a few houses had cars, we didn't.
A time gone by.
Good luck.

StephenHampshire · Dec 16, 2018

PYRTLE said:
That's such a shame but the way of the modern world, clean and tidy. Perhaps you could plant a few berry specimens you're side of the fence for the future. When I was a kid in the 1960s all the houses had front garden hedges, principally of privet ( some flowering ) and other species which would give shelter and nesting sites for song thrush and blackbird in the mature laurel. The elms used to have a breeding colony of house sparrows with their domed grass nests and the denser mature native hedgerows, dunnock, wren and robin. The avenue of flowering cherry had goldfinch and chaffinch nests.
Only a few houses had cars, we didn't.
A time gone by.
Good luck.

I already have a few plants waiting for some decent weather to coincide with a time I'm around to plant!

The blackcap is now singing and eating the cotoneaster berries, so he seems a happy chap!

Julie50 · Dec 16, 2018

From my flat window in Birmingham, UK, a newly arrived Mistle Thrush has become very territorial over a Rowan Tree!

Simon Wates · Dec 16, 2018

Here in southern Portugal, our large population of wintering Blackcaps gorge on small fruited Olives as much as, or maybe more than anything else.

Jon Turner · Dec 16, 2018

Himalayan Honeysuckle (Lycesteria) is a favourite of many birds right through the late summer, autumn and into winter. I learnt this from Guy Mountfort who answered this question in 'British Birds' more years ago than I care to remember. I've been planting them everywhere ever since!

StephenHampshire · Dec 16, 2018

Jon Turner said:
Himalayan Honeysuckle (Lycesteria) is a favourite of many birds right through the late summer, autumn and into winter. I learnt this from Guy Mountfort who answered this question in 'British Birds' more years ago than I care to remember. I've been planting them everywhere ever since!

I believe Leycesteria Formosa is also known as the Pheasant Berry. I think I will plant some myself against the new fence.

Nutcracker · Dec 17, 2018

Cotoneaster (like snowberry) is a bit of a 'famine food' - dry, astringent, very bitter; most birds won't touch them until they're desperate. That does however mean they are a good reliable food during severe weather; my Cotoneaster frigidus has had Waxwing and 5 thrush species in the last couple of winters :t:

Blackcaps tend to prefer small, soft, juicy black / dark purple berries (elder, ivy, Leycesteria, Berberis darwinii, privet, etc.). Thrushes tend to go for red berries, and are happy with larger ones. Waxwings like Rowan best (unlike Cotoneaster, it is juicy; always their first choice until stocks run out!), but will take a very wide range.

KC Foggin · Dec 17, 2018

My Muscadine Vine berries attracts a lot of birds. Most especially my Woodpekers, Pileateds most expectially.

jogresh · Dec 17, 2018

StephenHampshire said:
These small black berries were next to an abundance of red fruits on a cotoneaster, which the Blackcap showed no interest in.
I wondered what other members find are the favourite berries for the various birds they get in their gardens?

PYRTLE said:
Blackcaps feed on " Snowberries" ( Symphoricarpos ) in autumn and early winter, and some of the softer Rowan " chinsensis" if there's any left after the thrushes have devoured them. Cotoneaster and Berberis also is popular and Mahonia for Blackbirds and Mistle Thrush. Holly and Ivy (native) are also good for thrushes and latterly Woodpigeon.

andyadcock said:
I've noticed that in times of plenty, Snowberries are the last to go and are often left untouched, Rowan seems to be favourite with Pyrocantha slightly favoured over the Snowberries.

StephenHampshire said:
The snowberries in my garden are normally untouched!

Nutcracker said:
Cotoneaster (like snowberry) is a bit of a 'famine food' - dry, astringent, very bitter; most birds won't touch them until they're desperate. That does however mean they are a good reliable food during severe weather; my Cotoneaster frigidus has had Waxwing and 5 thrush species in the last couple of winters :t:

Yes my experiences have been similar. The "traditional" Cotoneaster bushes (simonsii etc) have hardly ever been touched in 35+ yrs of garden bird watching. However, i have seen in the last few years various specimens of the "new" cotoneaster trees (they look a good match for frigidus on a Google image search) being eaten by blackbirds and woodpigeons.

Woodpigeons also seem to be on berries more than in the past - probably due to their general increase in numbers and move into the suburbs.

WRT ivy, i've watched a blackbird collecting them to feed to it's nestlings.

I've seen Blackcaps troughing on mistletoe in France.

When i was a kid my "bible" was Tony Sopers' "The Bird Table Book" which detailed the different berry-bearing bushes; iirc he stated that snowberries are sterile and don't get taken, certainly i've never seen a bird eat one, though i don't doubt that a very hungry waxwing would - they'll eat anything when they're desperate!
During the Beast From the East, a roving group of Fieldfares came into our housing estate looking for food and before i could stop them, one ate a fake berry off a wreath on a small ornamental tree outside my window!

StephenHampshire · Dec 18, 2018

Nutcracker said:
Cotoneaster (like snowberry) is a bit of a 'famine food' - dry, astringent, very bitter; most birds won't touch them until they're desperate. That does however mean they are a good reliable food during severe weather; my Cotoneaster frigidus has had Waxwing and 5 thrush species in the last couple of winters :t:

Blackcaps tend to prefer small, soft, juicy black / dark purple berries (elder, ivy, Leycesteria, Berberis darwinii, privet, etc.). Thrushes tend to go for red berries, and are happy with larger ones. Waxwings like Rowan best (unlike Cotoneaster, it is juicy; always their first choice until stocks run out!), but will take a very wide range.

Thanks, very interesting

StephenHampshire · Dec 18, 2018

andyadcock said:
I've noticed that in times of plenty, Snowberries are the last to go and are often left untouched, Rowan seems to be favourite with Pyrocantha slightly favoured over the Snowberries.

The Pyrocantha bushes always get stripped first - Blackbirds (Turdus Merula) seem to enjoy these particularly

kb57 · Dec 18, 2018

Anyone who has been to Aberlady Bay, east of Edinburgh in winter will notice the large flocks of fieldfares feeding on the extensive sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) bushes.

These have orange berries which are palatable (to humans) - someone once told me they taste like oranges, and I would tend to agree, although I'm not quite sure if it's just a psychological association with the orange colour...

PYRTLE · Dec 18, 2018

kb57 said:
Anyone who has been to Aberlady Bay, east of Edinburgh in winter will notice the large flocks of fieldfares feeding on the extensive sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) bushes.

These have orange berries which are palatable (to humans) - someone once told me they taste like oranges, and I would tend to agree, although I'm not quite sure if it's just a psychological association with the orange colour...

High in vit C. but extremely bitter as testified by one H.F.W. when he was doing a foraging series on native plants, herbs and fungi. Sea buckthorn is being cut back along certain areas of the North Norfolk coast.

Nutcracker · Dec 18, 2018

PYRTLE said:
High in vit C. but extremely bitter as testified by one H.F.W. when he was doing a foraging series on native plants, herbs and fungi. Sea buckthorn is being cut back along certain areas of the North Norfolk coast.

Very sharp (acidic), but not bitter - I've often eaten them o

More of a problem for people is picking the berries out from between the thorns, but that doesn't matter so much for birds of course.

Jon Turner · Dec 18, 2018

There are several large Sea Buckthorn trees in a small reserve I look after here in N Devon. Some years they are stripped by the local Starling flock. I have also seen most of the Finches, Tits, Thrushes, plus Moorhens, and Pheasants helping themselves.

UK Berries - what eats what? (1 Viewer)

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