One of my favorite times of the year is when the mulberries begin to ripen on my backyard mulberry tree.  While my wife and I enjoy eating the sweet juicy berries, what I enjoy even more is watching the parade of birds that flock to the devour every berry in sight.

       Yesterday, my long wait for this special event ended when I noticed the tree is festooned with berries.  Although most of the berries are not ripe, I have learned that the hungry birds begin devouring the berries well before they are fully ripe.

       The birds that flock to mulberries are all card-carrying members of the bird world’s Who’s Who List.  While I am not a usually a name-dropper, the list of a few of the birds that eat mulberries includes bird royalty such as the eastern bluebird, rose-breasted grosbeak, great crested flycatcher, scarlet and summer tanagers, wood thrush, red-eyed vireo, northern bobwhite and wild turkey. 

CEDAR WAXWING EATING A MULBERRY

       One of the neatest things about the watching birds feeding in a mulberry tree is you are very likely to see multiple species of birds feeding at the same time.  It is not impossible to a dozen more species of birds gorging on mulberries during a feeding orgy.

       If you have a mulberry growing in your yard, you have probably witnessed the spring invasions of birds seeking mulberries.  However, if your yard is not blessed with this magical tree, and is large (the tree can grow to a height of 60-70′ or more) enough to accommodate this fast-growing tree, plant one.  While several introduced species of mulberries of mulberries grow in Georgia, the one you should buy is the red mulberry (Morus rubra) since it is the only mulberry native to Georgia.

       This investment will pay dividends for decades to come.