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Birds, insects and plants evolved together of tens of million years. For many, they rely on each other for food (birds and insects) and propagation (plants). In northern North America, after the last ice (~20,000 - 15,000 years ago) age when there were few plants and animals in Beverly, birds, insects and plants moved north together. Many birds were instrumental in helping plants move from south of the glaciers by transporting their seeds, either directly by carrying them or indirectly after the fruit they eat was digested and insects followed the plants. These were plants that evolved in North America, not plants that were brought in from another contentment. The insects that can be found on plants evolved with them. The birds would eat the insects and fruits of the plants. It was a balanced system that changed only slowly in response to a slowly changing, warming climate.
Without native plants, the insects that feed on them decline. The native birds that feed on the insects decline. They are all important to a healthy ecosystem.
Many organizations across the planet are working to recover the ecosystems and rewild the habitats. This includes local, state and national organizations. Below are some sources of information on native plants in Beverly.
See the following sites for more information:
Green Beverly Pollinator Project - Green Beverly's Pollinator Project (GBPP) provides free resources to help gardeners transform their plots and yards into native habitats. The adjacent map shows those properties whose owners have joined in and listed their demonstration gardens on the Pollinator Project Map. They also connect plots to show how far pollinators (insects and birds) have to travel between locations to stock up.
Home Grown National Parks - Homegrown National Park® (HNP) raises awareness and urgently inspires everyone to address the biodiversity crisis by adding native plants and removing invasive ones where we live, work, learn, pray, and play. One of the great efforts they have undertaken is to identify and map HNPs throughout the country. Clicking on the map will bring you to their map page. From there you can zoom into to Beverly and see the locations of HNP around the city. This is similar the GBPP's map.
iNaturalist - iNaturalist is similar to eBird as it collects community science observations of plants and animals. You can use iNaturalist to see what native species have been reported in an area and where they were observed.
Of course, many Beverly birding spots also have great native habitat, which attracts birds. Click on the map to see all of the spots.
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