Is A Popular Landscape Plant Poisoning Winter Birds?

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Nandina, also called heavenly bamboo, is an increasingly popular shrub for urban landscaping. The toxic compounds in its berries, however, could create problems for birds foraging on them in late winter. (Jennifer Nelson)

By Special to the Hillsboro Argus
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on January 28, 2014 at 2:10 PM, updated January 28, 2014 at 3:29 PM

You may have read my recent story about Nandina in the Hillsboro Argus or Beaverton Leader newspapers, explaining its toxicity to birds. Many readers have contacted me with comments either thanking me for the information to help protect birds or asking for more specific details. The issue merits a bit more attention, and hopefully this article will clear up a few concerns.

Jennifer Nelson is Outreach Coordinator with the Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District based in Hillsboro.

Although Nandina is known to be highly invasive in many parts of the country (and has been listed as such by the USDA), it is not currently listed as an invasive species or noxious weed in Oregon. Understanding the potential for certain plants to become invasive before a problem develops is one form of early intervention that has a chance of succeeding.

In the conservation world, we call this concept “early detection, rapid response,” but it is an idea that is familiar to us all on some level: When you want to stop a problem from getting out of hand, it is best to discover it early on and take action.What we know about how Nandina responds in other parts of the country gives us a preview of potential problems that could occur here in Oregon and allows us to make an informed choice about whether and how prevalently to include it in our own gardens and yards.

Would that we had such a warning when it came to invaders we can no longer control, like Scotch broom, or current threats like garlic mustard — we certainly wouldn’t ignore the potential threat of kudzu just because it is only an issue in other parts of the country right now. One way to think of this may be to separate in our minds which invasive species we will be on the lookout to remove (those already on the list like Scotch broom and garlic mustard) and which we may think twice about adding to the landscape (like kudzu or, perhaps, Nandina).

The primary concern about Nandina, wherever it grows, is that heavy, late winter foraging by domestic birds could lead to death because of the accumulation of toxic cyanide compounds. There is no dispute that the berries contain these toxic compounds, but the risk posed by these berries to birds would of course be related to how heavily they are consumed in our area.

Although there are no reported bird deaths in Oregon to date from this cause, this risk remains present as Nandina’s prevalence in landscaping increases and displaces other food sources. In Washington County so far, we can proudly say that birds have many tasty native options to feed from because our plant community is truly diverse — you are likely to see all of the berries on a blue elderberry disappear before any bird would resort to Nandina, for example.

There are many options to reduce the risk of birds feeding too heavily on Nandina. Including a variety of plants to offer other food sources to feeding birds may be helpful in keeping the birds from consuming Nandina. Trimming the Nandina berries or removing the plant is also a foolproof way to prevent harm.

Readers can find several scientific studies online (some have been linked in this article) supporting these conclusions, and the District is happy to share the sources we drew this information from on request.

I want to emphasize that Tualatin Soil and Water Conservation District is giving an early warning only on Nandina at this point. Whatever steps you take to protect our native birds, you will be contributing to a more diverse and beautiful natural landscape!