FYI

From: native-plants On
Behalf Of Krupnick, Gary
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2018 5:46 AM
To: PCA
Subject: [PCA] New Smithsonian Study Links Declines in Suburban Backyard
Birds to Presence of Non-native Plants

New Smithsonian Study Links Declines in Suburban Backyard Birds to Presence
of Non-native Plants

Findings Give Landowners a Simple Roadmap To Provide Essential Habitat for
Breeding Birds

Insect-eating birds that depend on the availability of high-calorie,
high-protein cuisine—namely caterpillars and spiders—during the breeding
season to feed their young are finding the menu severely lacking in
backyards landscaped with even a small proportion of non-native plants,
according to a new study
from the
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. This reduction of food
availability has led to a decline in the breeding success and population
growth of the Carolina chickadee, the study found.

“Landowners are using nonnative plants in their yards because they’re pretty
and exotic, they’re easy to maintain, and they tend to have fewer pests on
them,” said Desirée Narango, a graduate student researcher at the
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and first author of the study
published October 22 in PNAS. “But it turns out that a lot of those insects
they see as pests are actually critical food resources for our breeding
birds. For landowners who want to make a difference, our study shows that a
simple change they make in their yards can be profoundly helpful for bird
conservation.”

The study is the first to directly link the decline of a common resident
bird species to the lack of insect prey that results from the use of
nonnative plants in landscaping. Narango and colleagues placed nest boxes in
more than 160 yards in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and collected
data from homeowners monitoring the nest boxes weekly for Carolina chickadee
nests, eggs and nestlings. In those same yards, they also studied adult and
juvenile survival by gathering data from the homeowners on individually
marked birds they had resighted.

The researchers found that the only yards that were able to produce enough
chickadees to sustain a stable population were those with a plant
composition made up of more than 70 percent of native plants. Because more
than 90 percent of herbivorous insects will only eat one or a few native
plants, the use of these plants in landscaping is essential to ensure
breeding birds have enough insect prey to eat. For the same reason, native
plants are also likely critical for other resident birds, endangered species
and migratory species—and not just in backyards on the East Coast.

“These novel, artificial suburban landscapes are found across the country,”
Narango said. “But a gingko that you plant in D.C. and a gingko that you
plant in L.A. are doing the same thing for bird conservation—nothing. By
using native plants, we can provide food for not only our common North
American species, but we’re also providing vital stopover habitat and
resources for migratory birds during their perilous journeys.”

Because more than 80 percent of land in the contiguous United States is
privately managed, conservationists are trying to get a handle on the ways
these human-dominated landscapes threaten wildlife—and how they can be
managed in a way that can help. The study’s authors will continue to guide
landowners in their landscaping decisions by next looking at whether some
native plant species are disproportionately important for supporting insect
prey to breeding birds.

This study was conducted in partnership with the University of Delaware and
funded by the National Science Foundation. It relied on data collected by
landowners participating in the Smithsonian’s Neighborhood Nestwatch
program, a citizen-science
program that engages communities in monitoring the annual survival and
reproductive success of specific bird species.

“Urbanization is one of the primary ways we’re losing natural habitat around
the world, and it remains essential that we figure out how we minimize our
impacts while maximizing the protection of biodiversity,” said Pete Marra,
director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
and co-author of the paper.
“By working together with citizen scientists participating in the
Neighborhood Nestwatch program, people actually living within the urban
matrix, we have collectively found a solution that’s good for birds and also
for people.

Resources on native plants can be found online at Audubon’s Native Plants
Database , National Wildlife
Federation’s Native Plant Finder
and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map
.

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute
plays a leading role in the
Smithsonian’s global efforts to save wildlife species from extinction and
train future generations of conservationists. SCBI spearheads research
programs at its headquarters in Front Royal, Virginia, the Smithsonian’s
National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and at field research stations and
training sites worldwide. SCBI scientists tackle some of today’s most
complex conservation challenges by applying and sharing what they learn
about animal behavior and reproduction, ecology, genetics, migration and
conservation sustainability.

The paper’s third author is Douglas W. Tallamy with the University of
Delaware.

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