Want to help birds? Protect moth caterpillars!

Even though preserving wildlife has been an intense interest of mine for many years, I’m still learning a lot about the connections between what we plant and the impacts on various wildlife. Moths had never really been on my radar (taking a back seat to butterflies like the Monarch because of headlines about declining populations). But it turns out moths need and deserve our attention just as much. Most birds depend in large part on moth caterpillars as sources of food. With habitat already threatened by development and climate change, birds will be in dire straights if moth populations also plummet alongside their butterfly counterparts. But there are way to help…most native oaks, willows, cherries and plums, pines, and maples are hosts to native species of caterpillars. And while it’s true that caterpillars will feed on some of these trees, the damage is mostly aesthetic and the trees recover. For more info on what you can do to help maintain and expand moth populations, this site has a lot of good resources for learning more about moths and the plants they depend on: https://www.plantvirginianatives.org/virginia-moths

I’ve highlighted a few of the more spectacular looking moths below: