This should be of interest to the birding community, especially considering
the avian population declines we are seeing these days:
A recent scientific article emphasizing the importance of using native
plants in our backyards and for urban landscaping:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/10/16/1809259115?fbclid=IwAR0ygehof6VYvq8iXuGhw0HqYigDCRkYkEHwsIswwUPybNM3LdJxFgOxQ3Y
(Narango et al. 2018).
Even more so, we should target native plants that host the greatest
abundance of invertebrate species that birds rely on ("the highest number
of trophic interactions").
"Our work demonstrates that even a common “urban-adapted” bird species is
food-limited when nonnative plants dominate landscapes and suggests that
food limitation may be even more pronounced for bird species that have more
specialized diets than chickadees."
All the best,
Ashley Lohr
Loudoun County / Athens, GA
Ashley Lohr
Virginia Tech Class of 2015
Wildlife Conservation major / Entomology minor
aklohr@xxxxxx
