• Home
  • about
  • about the photographs
  • Rhos-on-Sea
    • St.Trillo’s Chapel
  • Bryn Euryn Local Nature Reserve
  • Bryn Pydew Nature Reserve
  • Mynydd Marian
  • Coed Pwllycrochan Wood
  • Rhiwledyn Nature Reserve
    • Grey Seals in North Wales
  • Great Orme
  • Llanddwyn Island & Newborough Warren
  • The Wales Coast Path
  • Wildflowers of Coastal Paths, Cliffs and Dunes

everyday nature trails

everyday nature trails

Tag Archives: sloes

Berry bounty for birds

26 Monday Sep 2011

Posted by theresagreen in Birds, Nature

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

berries eaten by birds, birds that eat berries, blackberries, blackbird, holly berries, house sparrow, red berries, rowan berries, sloes

This year seems to be an exceptionally bountiful one for berries, which is very good news for birds, insects and other animals that can stock up before winter’s chill descends. Dormice, squirrels, foxes and badgers are very fond of autumn fruit and nuts, as are migratory birds fattening up for winter, and insects such as the hawthorn picture wing fly and micro-moths which feed on spindle berries.

Way back in July I photographed Rowan trees laden with berries that were being eaten by Bullfinches, and the first of  the blackberries were already ripe. The rowan berries are all gone now, but other trees and hedgerows are bursting with hawthorn berries (haws), holly berries, wild rose hips, blackberries, elderberries, spindle berries and more.

13/7/11-Rowan berries

Gardens are contributing to the berry bounty too, the pyracantha hedge in our garden has been attractively garlanded with orange berries for a few weeks now and although birds have been picking at them, this past week they have been positively feasting. The House Sparrows in particular have flocked in, quite literally, arriving all together and tucking in to feed while chirping and chattering noisily to one another. Their mass visits have given me the opportunity to asses the Sparrow numbers; the most birds I’ve counted at one visit so far has been 22, but there may have been even more on the other side of the hedge where there are more berries.

House Sparrows tucking into pyracantha berries

Blackbirds have also sampled a few of the berries; they have a great liking for most berries and seem to have inbuilt radar that unerringly detects the exact moment they are ready to eat.

Blackbirds are very partial to berries

The RSPB website has an interesting page on the subject of birds and berries, from which I’ve picked out the following bits of information:

Birds and berries

The intricate relationship between birds and berries has developed into a mutual dependence for survival.Some plants use berries as a clever way to entice birds and other animals to distribute their seeds. A plant that produces berries surrounds its seed in juicy, fleshy pith, rewarding the birds that eat them with vitamins and energy.

24/9/11-Holly berries

Berries are an important food source for many birds during the winter, especially when the ground is too frozen to hunt worms or snails, and there are few insects about.

Some birds, like song and mistle thrushes, blackbirds, redwings and fieldfares, find most of their winter food from berries.

Most berries are either red or black. This makes the berries easier for birds to find them. Evergreens, and plants that produce berries when their leaves are still green generally produce red berries, which show up well against a green background. Black coloured berries are thought to show up better against leaves that have turned yellow or brown.

Blackberries

Blackberries are not true berries. They are aggregate fruits, which are fruits grouped together that contain seeds from different ovaries of a single flower.

Birds in a bush

Thrushes and waxwings prefer berries with smaller seeds, like rowan, as they are really only interested in the flesh, whereas other birds, like hawfinches, can make use of the seed itself, and so are attracted to berries with large seeds, such as hawthorn, blackthorn, cherries, and bullace (wild plum).

18/9/11-Blackthorn fruit, or sloes

Prunus spinosa (blackthorn or sloe) is a species of Prunus native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa. It is also locally naturalised in New Zealand and eastern North America.

The fruits, or sloes are blue-black n colour, small and sour. They are traditionally used to make sloe gin, jam and jelly, and are usually picked after the first frosts in late October/early November.

Fruits such as sloes that have a single stone are also not true berries, botanically they are known as ‘drupes‘. Drupes are fleshy fruits produced from a (usually) single-seeded ovary with a hard stony layer (called the endocarp) surrounding the seed. Other drupes are plums, peaches,apricots and cherries.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow everyday nature trails on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

‘But it is the common species that keep the living world ticking over and provide most of our experiences of wildlife, and I would argue that maintaining the abundance of these is as important a conservation priority as maintaining the existence of rarities’. Richard Mabey

MOST RECENT POSTS

  • Scouting Signs of Spring March 16, 2023
  • January on the Bryn January 21, 2023
  • Squirrelling Away…… October 23, 2022
  • Conwy Marine Walk February 15, 2022
  • Blowing Away the Cobwebs January 26, 2022
  • On the Trail of the Jackdaws of Conwy Town January 17, 2022

OLDER POSTS

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR?

  • Grey Seals in North Wales
    Grey Seals in North Wales
  • The life of a Yellow Dung-fly
    The life of a Yellow Dung-fly
  • The blackberry bramble
    The blackberry bramble
  • Butterflies of the Great Orme
    Butterflies of the Great Orme
  • Pretty prickly Thistles
    Pretty prickly Thistles
  • Love your weeds - Red Deadnettle
    Love your weeds - Red Deadnettle
  • Llanddwyn Island & Newborough Warren
    Llanddwyn Island & Newborough Warren
  • Conwy Marine Walk
    Conwy Marine Walk
  • Bird Sightings List by Area/Habitat
    Bird Sightings List by Area/Habitat
  • Wildflowers of Coastal Paths, Cliffs and Dunes
    Wildflowers of Coastal Paths, Cliffs and Dunes

nightingale trails

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

MY WILDFLOWER BLOG: where the wildflowers are

Snowdrop

Snowdrop

most recent posts

Follow everyday nature trails on WordPress.com

Social

  • View teresamaygreen’s profile on Twitter

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Website Built with WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • everyday nature trails
    • Join 345 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • everyday nature trails
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: