moose4you
Newly Registered
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:02 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Why don't birds eat our dogwood tree berries?

Hi,
We have two beautiful kousa dogwood trees full of plump red berries, and I've noticed that no wildlife is eating them. Why is this? I have searched online and cannot find any discussion about poisonous dogwood berries, but I'm beginning to wonder...
Thanks for any help to our mystery!
Wendi

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seaellare
Cool Member
Posts: 72
Joined: Mon Jul 03, 2006 12:12 am
Location: zone 7 Piedmont, SC

Maybe the birds and such are just picky - and there are too many other better tasting things available right now! I saw on this site https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kousa_Dogwood that the berries don't have much flavor... :)

pixelphoto
Senior Member
Posts: 155
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:13 pm
Location: Middle Georgia USA

I'm not a dogwood expert so when you say you have a kousa dogwood I don't know what kind that is.
I know I live in Georgia and we have tons of dogwoods on our property.
The deer and turkey browse them lightly.
The tweety birds eat more of the red berries than any of the other animals.
That said there are just so many there is no way they could eat them all. And there are so many other types of food I'm sure this is not their only diet.
But yes they do eat them just not much.

moose4you
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Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:02 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Thanks for the help everyone. It still seems odd to me, especially since I haven't noticed many other berry-bearing trees in our neighborhood, but maybe it IS that they're just picky and the berries taste bland. :o Thanks!

Newt
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Posts: 1868
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 10:44 pm
Location: Maryland zone 7

Kousa dogwood aka Cornus kousa aka Japanese dogwood is native to Asia. The berries are larger then our native dogwood aka Cornus florida and birds often have trouble eating them. They will sometimes eat the fallen ones after they have rotted. It's a similar problem for the birds with some of the newer varieties of crabapple. I always recommend that the smaller berried trees be planted for the wildlife.

Newt

moose4you
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Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:02 am
Location: Seattle, WA

Thanks for the input everyone! I guess we'll just enjoy looking at them each year - and clean up the mess after they drop :(.
Thanks!

Newt
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Posts: 1868
Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 10:44 pm
Location: Maryland zone 7

Wendi, you are so very welcome!

Newt



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