Gold Coast Gardener

February 12, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

During the winter months here in our area many migratory birds arrive and stay if they have available food sources. Unfortunately many communities that are beautifully landscaped don’t contain plants that provide berries or fruits that are useful to birds and larger animals.

Many people that I know personally always complain that when they visit my home they see so much wildlife in the form of birds, turtles, lizards and other things, where at their own landscapes they see nothing or very little. I’ve tried in my own landscape to put in hundreds of plants to provide food for nectar sources for birds, butterflies and nest boxes in the trees for birds and even for bats.

If you want to attract wildlife or to keep wildlife in the vicinity of your landscape, you need to think about putting in plants that have some value other than their ornamental look. Many of our native plants are excellent choices for providing either food or nesting sites for our wildlife. Most any of our plants that produce large berries, nuts, or fruit can be used.

Some favorites in the landscape include natives such as the firebush, which provides orange tubular flowers with a lot of nectar for butterflies and hummingbirds and quarter inch large black juicy fruits that birds and other animals enjoy.

Native lantana which has beautiful orange flowers or gold flowers provide seeds that birds enjoy.

Wax myrtle is another favorite and it comes male and female and you need a female if you want a lot of berries. The fruits on wax myrtle are very tiny, bluish-gray in color and are produced on big plants by the many thousands. These provide an important winter food source for migrating birds and if you have wax myrtle that are full of berries you can sit close by and see a wide assortment of birds coming in to have a feast.

Beauty berry is another nice native with BB size purple fruits clustered along the stems. These can also be used as single trunk specimens if you don’t want it to grow as a shrub.
Coco plum, another nice native, has round shiny glossy foliage and produces two types of fruit depending on the variety. One type produces black fruits with white pulp and a large seed and the other with a larger leaf produces a pale yellow fruit about one inch in diameter with white pulp and a large seed. Both types of coco plums are found in the wild and grow well over a wide variety of soil types and produce fruit from late spring until late fall.

Don’t forget about larger trees either. Live oaks and other type of oaks produce generous amounts of acorns and these ripen during the fall and early winter season and provide plenty of food for birds, squirrels and other animals.

If you have canals, lakes, or wet areas another nice native pond apple is a heavy producer of fruit which is utilized by a lot of types of wildlife. Don’t forget palms either and many of our palms whether they are native or exotic produce large amounts of fruit if they are in good health. These fruits which come in a variety of colors and sizes provide important sources of food for birds, squirrels and other types of wildlife.

If you’d like information on plants to attract wildlife to your landscape, there are many books at bookstores that will give you some helpful hints or you can also contact the Palm Beach County Extension office for free advice. Dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.