Top Ten Berry Plants For Birds


  1. Beauty Berry: Tiny spring flowers produce clusters of magenta, purple or white fruits that remain on these spreading shrubs after the leaves drop. These fruits become a good source of food for Robins, Towhees, Brown Thrasher, and Mockingbirds.
  2. Elderberry: This shrub features long, arching branches in early summer it produces flat white flower clusters that turn into purple berries by late summer. Gray catbirds, Robins, Bluebirds, and many other song birds.
  3. Hawthorn: Providing a good source of cover for many birds, also produces scarlet berries that last all winter.
  4. Crabapple: Produce small apples of varying sizes and colors that remain as hard as marbles until freeze-thaw cycles make them appealing to birds.
  5. Chokeberry: produce red or black berries that are low in fat and protein so birds wait until the more desirable foods are gone.
  6. American Cranberrybush: White clusters of spring flowers that form red, blue or black fruits.
  7. Firethorn: Birds flock to these clusters of orange to red fruits and may appear intoxicated when these fruits become over ripe.
  8. Winterberry: Songbirds, Waterfowl and game birds love the fruits of this common holly especially in late winter when food becomes scarce.
  9. Eastern Redcedar: These form a type of marriage with Cedar Waxwings made in bird heaven. Several species adore the blue-gray fruits that closely resemble berries.
  10. ServiceBerry: Hard working and airy, serviceberries grow as trees or multi stemmed shrubs. Bonus berries: Bayberry, Currant, Dogwood, Hackberry, Holly, Huckleberry, Juniper, Mulberry, Raspberry, Virginia creeper and Wild grape.