How Important Are Caterpillars for Birds? Critical!

Name: How Important Are Caterpillars for Birds? Critical!
Start: 2025-01-31T18:45:00-05:00
End: 2025-01-31T20:15:00-05:00
Location: Cypress & Grove Brewing Co.

Schedule

Fri Jan 31 2025 at 06:45 pm to 08:15 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Cypress & Grove Brewing Co. | Gainesville, FL

Description:
Most birders and native plant gardeners know about berries sustaining songbirds in winter and in migration, but the importance of insects to the lives of songbirds seems to be a little obscure. One group of insects, the small caterpillars known as microlepidoptera, are the most valuable players. How they tie in to warbler migration to our wonderful deciduous forests of the Eastern United States is an amazing story that Deborah Green loves to share, invoking the work of Scott Weidensaul and Dr. Doug Tallamy. How the timing of migration ties in with the leafing out the forests illustrates the complexity of our natural world. Deborah will share her suggestions of how we can help, from not using pesticides to growing specific native plants for these caterpillars.
About the Speaker: Deborah earned her Ph.D. in entomology from University of California, Berkeley, nearly 45 years ago with a community ecology study involving caterpillars. At that time, she was a member of the California Native Plant Society and, moving back to her home state of Florida, she joined the Florida Native Plant Society in the late 1980s. Deborah is working to make her home landscape in Central Florida 100% native and has the pleasure of seeing some great songbirds in her own yard. She is a big fan of Dr. Doug Tallamy, who promotes the importance of insects as the “little things that run the world,” and she simplifies Tallamy’s message for us locally here in Florida, emphasizing the caterpillar connection. Deborah grew up in Gainesville, and although she has lived for the past 40 years in the Orlando area, she still has family here and has shown up at Alachua Audubon events over the years. Deborah is president of Orange Audubon Society and chairs the NORTH SHORE BIRDING FESTIVAL which is the first weekend in December.
* Pine Warbler with caterpillar. Photo: Robert Sena