Berry Warning!!!

This is just to warn others that 'might not know' about Nandina bushes, if you already know then I apologize for being repetitive. I really love birds and other wildlife so I felt that I needed to do this. Hopefully you feel the same and spread the word.
(This is NOT one of those crazy rumors that go around on the internet, please click on the Google link I provided below to see for yourself)

This Cedar Waxwing showed up with about 7 others, they hung around for a few minutes then left, no big deal... A little while later they returned and hung around a few minutes, then this one landed on my Nandina bush, you'd think, "no big deal", but in actuality it turns out it is. The deal is, Nandina berries are VERY toxic to ALL animal life, there is actual cyanide in them, plus other toxins.
I have never heard this before until I read this on a Facebook bird page I was reading, I was more than surprised...

"Nandina berries contain cyanide and other alkaloids that produce highly toxic hydrogen cyanide (HCN) which is extremely poisonous to all animals. Sudden death may be the only sign of cyanide poisoning and death usually comes in minutes to an hour. ... Hydrogen cyanide is a painful and unnecessary way for birds to die."

I did not know this until the other day...

The thing is, I have had Nandina bushes for over 40 years, I have never seen anything at all eat them and I watch for it too. I always wondered why nothing would eat them, the Mockingbird would never eat them, it never dawned on me that they were literally a killer. I have had several Yaupon Holly bushes and Pyracantha with their berries and everything from tree lizards to Mockingbirds to Cedar Waxwings would eat them, but never the Nandina.

Anyway, as I was watching this particular bird sitting atop this bush it never entered my mind that he would try and eat a berry, so I wasn't concerned at all, I was holding down the shutter button (at 10 fps) when I saw it in his mouth.
(I just thought that the birds were going to jump into my water feature to drink and take a bath, they always did at my other house)

I put down the camera and clapped my hands hoping he would leave without it, but he just flew into a nearby tree, he played around with the berry in his mouth, not gulping it down like normal.
From what I could see, he dropped it, probably purposely, hopefully that is what I saw, he dropped something, maybe only part of it, but, I tried, he and the others flew away.
The house I lived in for 40 years had a few of these bushes, now the house I live in has a lot of them, I went and grabbed a sack and stripped each bush of their berries. That might help this year, but next year I will strip them when I see the green ones.
They recommend to either dig up the bushes or to strip the berries. I have a lot of things to do around here and I don't want to dig up a lot of bushes, some are very large too.

I am just relaying this and hoping that others that have them will now know how bad these berries can be.
Last year I watched and took shots of a LOT of Cedar Waxwings, they came from my neighbor's bushes that has berries, the thing is with his though is that they are NOT Nandinas, it might be a holly bush, I didn't snoop too much. I noticed a month or so ago my neighbor had a crew over there trimming trees, there was a large pile of limbs out front to be picked up. I am now assuming that the crew also trimmed the berry bush and that is why the Waxwings were over at my yard looking for food, their 'stash' was no longer there. I have been waiting on them for a couple of weeks because I again 'assumed' that the bush next door was still producing.

Oh well, live and learn... Thanks for reading this far.

Take your pick of the links that I have below in Google... (If for some reason this link does not work, just type in, "nandina poisonous to birds", without the quotes)

https://www.google.com​/search?safe=off&sourc​e=hp&ei=9MyuWvWjGIKasQ​Xnx4CACA&q=nandina+poi​sonous+to+birds&oq=nan​dina&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.35i39k1j0i131k1​l2j0l7.954.2540.0.4910​.8.7.0.0.0.0.226.610.5​j0j1.6.0....0...1c.1.6​4.psy-ab..2.6.604.0...0.Sc24​o-A9XKg

http://ar.audubon.org …andina-berries-kill-birds

Thanks for your info. These plants are here in Oz for sale at the nurseries, I won't buy them now.

I had a few of these plants in my yard and after reading about this a while ago I removed them. I never saw anything eating the berries though and suspected wildlife knew something I didn't.

Great info...thanks for sharing it.

Duane N wrote in post #18589062
I had a few of these plants in my yard and after reading about this a while ago I removed them. I never saw anything eating the berries though and suspected wildlife knew something I didn't.

Great info...thanks for sharing it.

They usually do when it comes to this kind of thing. Maybe they can smell it.

Lyn2011 wrote in post #18589057
Thanks for your info. These plants are here in Oz for sale at the nurseries, I won't buy them now.

These plants were imported from China and Japan according to what I read, they have been used for years as an ornamental plant. We can't save the world, but at least in my backyard (and front yard) they won't be a danger, and hopefully we can tell people and spread the knowledge and hope that it spreads.
Thank you, Lyn for your response on this, I really appreciate that.

Randy

Duane N wrote in post #18589062
I had a few of these plants in my yard and after reading about this a while ago I removed them. I never saw anything eating the berries though and suspected wildlife knew something I didn't.

Great info...thanks for sharing it.

They are pretty plants, I hate to see that you have to pull them, but they for sure won't be eating them at your house.
Thank you, Duane, and like you,. I never saw anything at all eating them until the other day, so who knows how many Robins, Cedar Waxwings, and Mockingbirds, or possibly a Possum (who is REALLY beneficial) has eaten them in the past.

I had a LOT of these Nandina plants (Maybe 15 or so) that were already at this house that we bought two years ago, I removed a lot of them from the front and replanted them in the back, now I will have to do as you probably, I hate to also, but... (I can tell you that I won't be getting at them as fast as you did!)

Thank you for caring, that's a good thing that you did.

Randy

If anyone knows of anything else that may be harmful that birds eat, please add to this, or, if you have something to say, it'd be appreciated.

Wildlife gives me a reason to get up in the morning, I love my wife, my three dogs, and the birds and animals that I shoot, if people ate these berries I might not have made this thread.
Really, this is important, the guilt that I felt as soon as I saw that Waxwing take that berry was enough for me to try and do something, I knew it was poisonous but procrastinated, that might have cost that bird its life. My wife just told me that we now have a possum here now, she saw it early this morning playing, "possum" when the dogs saw it, so now I need to go out and make sure there are none on the ground that it may eat, or, some other critter.

Anyway, thanks to all that read this and hopefully we can help a little, or, a lot.

Randy

Thank you so much for posting this information. I did not know this.Thank goodness I read your post. I was actually planning on planting some bushes this spring that would provide birds with some food. It won't be Nandina Bush.

truecolors wrote in post #18597504
Thank you so much for posting this information. I did not know this.Thank goodness I read your post. I was actually planning on planting some bushes this spring that would provide birds with some food. It won't be Nandina Bush.

I'm glad that it helped, I was like you, I had no idea. I am really surprised that this isn't well known actually, and surely there are more plants/bushes that are not good for birds that they feed on that most of us are unaware of. I wish there were NON-berry type Nandinas...

Thanks, Sheron!

Bradford Pear

Also known as Callery Pear

It was developed as a sterile tree but has evolved on its own to now produce a terrible fruit. This fruit is distributed by wildlife and is now popping up everywhere ... at least where I live. It is now considered invasive in the US and there are efforts to begin eliminating it.

http://www.clemson.edu …scape/trees/hgi​c1006.html

https://mdc.mo.gov …-pear-landscape-plantings

recrisp wrote in post #18589128
They are pretty plants, I hate to see that you have to pull them, but they for sure won't be eating them at your house.
Thank you, Duane, and like you,. I never saw anything at all eating them until the other day, so who knows how many Robins, Cedar Waxwings, and Mockingbirds, or possibly a Possum (who is REALLY beneficial) has eaten them in the past.

I had a LOT of these Nandina plants (Maybe 15 or so) that were already at this house that we bought two years ago, I removed a lot of them from the front and replanted them in the back, now I will have to do as you probably, I hate to also, but... (I can tell you that I won't be getting at them as fast as you did!)

Thank you for caring, that's a good thing that you did.

Randy

The longer they have to get established, they harder they will be to kill. Loppers to the base is a good start. It will not only help keep them from getting established, it will keep the fruit from developing.

Fwiw, my understanding is that it takes repeated eating of the berries to make birds sick.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18597519
Bradford Pear

Also known as Callery Pear

It was developed as a sterile tree but has evolved on its own to now produce a terrible fruit. This fruit is distributed by wildlife and is now popping up everywhere ... at least where I live. It is now considered invasive in the US and there are efforts to begin eliminating it.

http://www.clemson.edu …scape/trees/hgi​c1006.html

https://mdc.mo.gov …-pear-landscape-plantings

I just read that about Bradford Pears being a tree that should be undesirable last week, I was surprised because it is one of the most planted trees when it come to commercial buildings and new houses. I personally hate them because my next-door neighbor had two and they were nothing but trouble, they break off large branches too easily and drop 'crap' all of the time. I have not seen any fruit, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Thanks for the information!

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18597521
The longer they have to get established, they harder they will be to kill. Loppers to the base is a good start. It will not only help keep them from getting established, it will keep the fruit from developing.

Fwiw, my understanding is that it takes repeated eating of the berries to make birds sick.

I just waited for a really good soaking rain and used a shovel, last year I did just that. The bad part was that since I didn't know about them, I transplanted quite a few, just moved them from the front to a 'desirable' spot in the back. I have one that is about 5' tall that I could not dig up, it's still in the front, now, I will do what it takes to remove it, I loved them until I learned all of this.

I hope that is true about the berries have to be eaten repeatedly, that would be the best outcome. That is not what I read, but I didn't read a whole lot of it, just enough to make sure that I knew this wasn't an 'internet rumor'.

Thanks again!