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From: foley@helix.nih.gov (Charles K. Foley)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Do birds eat mulberries?
Message-ID: <1538@nih-csl.nih.gov>
Date: 24 May 91 15:01:39 GMT
References: <5413@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Sender: news@nih-csl.nih.gov
Organization: National Institutes of Health, Bethesda
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In article <5413@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> packer@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov writes:
>If birds eat mulberries, I leave alone the tree in my back yard.
>Otherwise, I'd be inclined to chop it down because it was
>planted exactly where you shouldn't plant one, next to a sidewalk.


Yes, birds eat mulberries.  A mulberry tree in the neighborhood I grew
up in used to attract flocks of Cedar Waxwings - one of my favorite birds.

If you decide to take the tree down, maybe you could plant another in
a more favorable location that would still attract the birds.  You might
consider a tree that keeps its berries into the winter so that birds 
will have something to eat when their summer foods are gone.  Some
species you might try are: American holley (plants are male or female
so you would need at least two for pollination), mountain ash, dogwood.

Bluebirds particularly like the berries from these trees in the winter
when the bugs are gone...

--
Charles Foley (foley@iris03.niehs.nih.gov)
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
National Institutes of Health
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709