Doak Creek Native Plant Nursery

Birds Thriving with Native Plants

83331 Marlow Road
Eugene, Oregon 97405
Weekdays By Appointment
Open Saturday 10:00-4:00 - Closed Sunday
Please call ahead if you need directions
(541) 521-9907

The following photos and information obtained from Audubon:
https://www.audubon.org/news/these-fantastic-photos-show-birds-thriving-native-plants

Photo: Joanie Christian/Audubon Photography Awards

Song Sparrow on Common Cattail

This Song Sparrow perches on a cattail in Washington state while it gathers nesting materials on a sunny morning. Cattails and their cottony fluff make for ideal nest lining for native birds that build nests in the springtime. When her mouth wasn’t full of cattail fluff, this female sparrow sang while working—a rare treat, considering it’s the male Song Sparrows that more typically live up to the species’ name.

Photo: Bruce Moffat/Audubon Photography Awards

Bushtit on Red Alder

Don’t let this slick Bushtit deceive you. Though the red alder’s catkins—the long, cylindrical flowers that mark the first blooms of spring for this tree—may seem like the main course, the bird is actually feasting on larvae buried in the flower. This photo displays the advantage of the Bushtit’s diminutive size: Larger birds tend to forage from the top of plants, but Bushtits can bank on their light weight (less than one-fifth of an ounce) to hang upside down.

Photo: Daniel Ellison/Audubon Photography Awards

Cedar Waxwing on Chokecherry

This young Cedar Waxwing relies on its acrobatic reach to feed from a chokecherry shrub in autumn. As the chokecherries ripen in the summer and fall months, Cedar Waxwings incorporate them into their already fruit-heavy diets. Such a diet has led to a phenomenon where, after gorging on berries in the winter and spring that have been over-ripened, thawed and fermented, waxwings have been known to get tipsy.