Native landscapes bring birds to Los Angeles yards
Researchers found that native landscaping attracted birds in LA
Southern California, where Los Angeles and San Diego sprawl from the Pacific Ocean to the nearby mountains, is semi-desert, dry, but not too dry for the chaparral and coastal sage native to the area. These plant communities of small trees and shrubs blanket canyons, hillsides and open mesas. But one place you will almost never find these plants is in people’s yards. It seems that the greater majority of southern California residents are hell-bent determined to pretend that their houses exist anywhere else besides southern California.
Walking along the streets in my San Diego neighborhood often seems like I am visiting Kentucky or Ohio, as I view yards of manicured green, green grass. There are also yards that might be referred to as southern California exotica. This landscaping mixes Australian eucalyptus, lots of birds of paradise, plants of the African fynbos, palm trees from Pacific Islands, and a hodgepodge of just about any plant from anywhere.
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Besides being unattractive, at least to me, these lawns and exotica soak up lots of water. Los Angeles County uses 1.2 billion gallons of water per day, much of that for landscaping. Some residents use over 200 gallons a day to keep those Kentucky-African-Australian lawns green. San Diego and other cities in the area are not much different.
California has suffered through years and years of drought. Additionally, much of the water used in southern California comes from the Colorado River, and the flow of that river has diminished in recent decades. Municipalities and environmental organizations have thus urged homeowners to convert their lawns to native landscapes, which need little or no watering.
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Besides saving water, native-landscaped yards could have additional benefits for the local fauna, as two researchers from California State University, Los Angeles, recently discovered. The two surveyed for birds in suburban yards in the greater Los Angeles area, comparing birds in yards with native plants to birds in yards with grass or exotic plants. They found, unsurprisingly, that the native-landscaped yards attracted more birds and a greater variety: mockingbirds, hummingbirds, warblers, all sorts of birds.
Previous research has compared birds’ attraction to native and nonnative landscaping, but the studies were performed during nesting season, the warmer months of the year. This pair of researchers, Noriko L. Smallwood and Eric M. Wood, looked at the birds’ behaviors during non-breeding months, October through March. Several of the bird species, such as yellow-rumped warblers and white crowned sparrows, winter in southern California and are not seen here during summer. This study gathered information on these migrating species and filled out information on species that live in Los Angeles year-round.
Wood and Smallwood found that birds were more likely to feed and perch in native yards. Having an open canyon or park close by made a difference, too. The closer the yard to a park or open space, the more birds it had. Yards with native trees, like scrub oaks, made a big difference, too. Birds also liked yards that resembled natural settings, like having a lot of leaf litter. It’s worth mentioning again the variety of bird species: many more species visited native-landscaped yards than those with lawns or exotic landscaping.
While most of the native-landscaped yards contained some nonnatives, the researchers considered a lawn “native” if more than 79 percent of the flora consisted of plants native to the Los Angeles area. Overall, native yards had more local trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, as well as some bare ground and leaf litter compared to conventional yards. No native plants were found in the conventional yards.
Wood and Smallwood’s conclusions jive with my own casual observations. For example, cedar waxwings migrate and winter in California. They are not the most urban-adapted birds, yet I’ve seen them feeding on the bright red berries of native toyons adjacent to parking lots. Goldfinches flock, literally, to feed on the native sycamores that line a street in a neighborhood near to me. The campus of the University of California San Diego is next to Torrey Pines State Reserve, a large, natural open space. Dark-eyed juncos, western bluebirds, and a few other species that might not be considered urban adapted scamper across the grounds and perch in the trees of the university.
You may think this research is of no great import, but it is actually a big deal. Most every city in the world has spread out in the decades after WWII, but Los Angeles probably comes to mind first when you hear the term “urban sprawl.” The city spreads over hundreds of square miles. San Diego, to the south, is smaller, but is another sprawling metropolis of neighborhoods and freeways. All in all, a swath of tens of thousands of square miles of southern California has been urbanized. These are all areas of habitat—or former habitat—for hundreds of bird species. Landscaping with native plants, where these birds can live their lives and complete their migrations, is a big plus for the natural world.
Finally, I might add that having more birds around is good for you. Researchers have found that hearing or seeing birds improves people’s moods for hours. So go native with your yard, save water, bring back the birds, and be happy!
