9 minute read
From the Ground Up: Planting for Birds and Birding for Plants
By Zach Phillips, Ph.D., Terrestrial Invertebrate Conservation Ecologist
“I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.” —Walt Whitman
Birdwatching (or “birding”) is a popular activity. Grass-watching, not so much. People from all walks of life rise at dawn to go birding. Naturalist societies gather on weekends to go birding. My mom goes birding; your mom goes birding. Nobody says they’re going “grassing.” If somebody does say, “I’m going grassing,” watch out. That person might be a snitch — an incredibly tactless snitch.
In the past year, I’ve spent more time watching grass than I ever expected to, and it’s thanks to the birds. Since February 2025, I’ve been conducting surveys of bird-plant interactions at Elings Park, where Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and Channel Islands Restoration have transformed an acre (.4 hectares) of weeds into a coastal sage scrub habitat dominated by native shrubs. Giant wildrye (Elymus condensatus), one of the grasses planted at the site, has been a major draw for a variety of birds (Figure 1), and has thus become a focus of these surveys.
Leaves of Grass, Seeds of Grass, Stems of Grass ... and Other Bird Resources
Documenting bird-plant interactions can help determine which plants are key resources for birds, and what kinds of resources they represent (e.g., food, nesting sites, chill hangout spots). From small private yards to large public spaces like Elings Park, this information is useful for choosing bird-friendly native plant palettes and habitat structures (Polan, n.d.). Ultimately, conserving, managing, and creating habitat for birds can mitigate habitat loss and degradation that threatens species around the world (Lees et al., 2022, 231-260).
Most of the interactions between birds and plants, including birds and giant wildrye, can broadly be categorized as foraging or non-foraging behaviors. On a finer scale, I’ve characterized these interactions by behavior type (e.g., bill-rubbing, singing, just chilling) in relation to where on a given plant species these behaviors are expressed (e.g., stems, leaves, seeds). These details can be important for understanding a bird’s ecology, conservation requirements, and basic life history, including its diet. For example, it’s difficult to identify insects as they’re captured and eaten by a bird; however, many insect species only occur on certain parts of plants, so if you can identify the place on a plant where such a bird is capturing bugs (e.g., the undersides of leaves), that can significantly narrow the range of possible prey.
Non-Foraging on Giant Wildrye
Giant wildrye is no lawn or similar grass of low reputation. It grows tall and in bunches, with stems reaching up to 8 feet (2 meters) high. At the Elings Park site, giant wildrye has outpaced the upward growth of the rest of the plants it was introduced with, like coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis), California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), and white sage (Salvia apiana). This probably explains why so many birds favor it as a general perch at Elings — and as the first perch they land on when entering the habitat. The two other prime perches are the only tall snag available (Figure 2) and the site’s perimeter fence (Figure 3).
A perch is a stage for performing a variety of behaviors. Some are conspicuous, like singing, and others are less obvious, like bill-rubbing, feather-ruffling (Figure 4), and surveying for predators. Birds generally rub their bills on surfaces to clean them (a behavior called “feaking”), and in some cases to shape them or even as a method of communication (St., n.d.). While most billrubbing I’ve seen at Elings Park has been done on harder surfaces, particularly on exposed wood and the fence, I’ve observed Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin) and Anna’s Hummmingbird (Calypte anna) using the stems of giant wildrye as a feaking substrate (Collage). Some plants like white sage, which the hummingbirds frequently visit for nectar (Figure 5), may present unsuitably sticky and messy surfaces for bill-rubbing. This possibility even inspired changes to my own personal hygiene. At Elings, I no longer try to clean my mustache on white sage stems — now I go straight for the fence.
For some birds, giant wildrye also appears to serve as a useful lower vantage point. During a few weeks this summer, a pair of Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) parents (Collage) frequently and frenetically exited dense shrubs like coyote bush — where they were often foraging for insects — to alight on more open giant wildrye stems and leaves. The parents seemed to move to these more exposed perches to check on their young fledgling, a confused-looking youth bumbling around the site (Figure 6).
During surveys, I’ve also observed multiple species of Tyrant Flycatchers (Family Tyrannidae), using lower giant wildrye perches as launch pads to capture insects midair, grab them from the ground, or hover-glean them from nearby plants (bird collage on page 12). For instance, during a warm day this spring, a thin cloud of crane flies (Family Tipulidae) emanated from a group of shrubs. A couple of Western Kingbirds (Tyrannus verticalis) made a meal out of them, repeatedly sallying from their low-bent wildrye perches to hover beside the shrubs, grab at the corona of flies, and return to their wildrye perch or a nearby one.
Foraging on Giant Wildrye
Finches are known to be grass seed eaters, and Lesser Goldfinches (Spinus psaltria) and House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) have been two of the most frequent giant wildrye seed eaters at Elings (Figure 7; Collage); the House Finches, however, have more frequently foraged seeds from California encelia (Encelia californica). Other species I’ve observed feeding on giant wildrye seeds this past year include American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), the finchlike Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) (Collage), and the nonnative Scaly-breasted Munia (Lonchura punctulata).
Native plants also provide food to birds by supporting communities of herbivorous insects, spiders, and other arthropod prey. Caterpillars are especially important prey for birds during their breeding season (Narango et al., 2020, 5751). For part of the summer, adults of the brown ctenucha day-flying moth (Ctenucha brunnea) were common at the Elings site. These moths use giant wildrye as their larval (i.e., caterpillar) host, but only adults were observed at Elings, not caterpillars (Figure 8). While some birds like Wrentits (Chamaea fasciata) gleaned insects from giant wildrye (Collage), I didn’t see any clear instances of caterpillar capture. Instead, most foraging for caterpillars appeared to occur on coyote bush, a plant species that hosted an abundant population of moth larvae during spring and summer surveys.
Bird-Plant Gallery Exhibit at the Garden
Birding is a gateway activity for viewing and appreciating other facets of nature, including plants. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of grass in my life, but until now I’ve never really seen it. (What I’m trying to say, giant wildrye, is that I’m falling in love with you.) The upcoming exhibit, From the Ground Up, at the Pritzlaff Conservation Center Gallery offers a chance to see plants through a bird’s gaze, and the space should serve as a kind of primer for observing bird-plant interactions on your own. Kevin Spracher, the Garden’s interpretation and exhibitions curator, is currently gathering artistic and scientific forces to display birdplant interactions based on the Elings Park surveys (opening in December 2025). To properly view this art, binoculars are recommended.
“Over the white and brown buckwheat, a hummer and buzzer there with the rest, Over the dusky green of the rye as it ripples and shades in the breeze.” —Walt Whitman
Acknowledgements:
Thank you for all the bird talks and consulting: Conor McMahon, Hugh Ranson, Scot Pipkin, and Mark Holmgren. Thanks to Elings Park Executive Director Dean Noble, to the ecology team for early morning plant talks and pollinator observations, and to Kevin Spracher for being a great art-bird-plant collaborator.
CITATIONS
Lees, A. C., Haskell, L., Allinson, T., Bezeng, S. B., Burfield, I. J., Renjifo, L. M., Rosenberg, K. V., Viswanathan, A., & Butchart, S. H.M. (2022, October). State of the World’s Birds. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 47, 231-260. https://www.annualreviews.org/content/ journals/10.1146/annurev-environ-112420-014642
Narango, D. L., Tallamy, D. W., & Shropshire, K. J. (2020, November 13). Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species. Nature Communications, (11), 5751. https:// www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19565-4
Polan, J. (n.d.). Plants For Birds. National Audubon Society. Retrieved October 1, 2025, from https://www.audubon.org/plantsforbirds
St., K. (n.d.). Outside My Window | A Blog of Birds & Nature with Kate St. John. Retrieved October 1, 2025, from http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2022/04/09/feaking/
