Which native insects and birds feed on invasive plants in NE US?

Black Swallowtails use a number of non native plants of the carrot family as host plants, like carrots, parsley, dill, and queen anne’s lace

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I’ll go ahead and create a project to compile instances of interactions such as those you all have been mentioning. For simplicity’s sake, the project will probably only focus on North America. I’m thinking “Invasive Interactions” as the working title. It’ll probably have to be a traditional project as I cannot fathom a way to wrangle the iNaturalist search engine to sift through the many interaction-related observation fields.

On a related note, what’s the etiquette concerning project curation? I’m happy to add anyone who is interested onto the project, especially as this isn’t only my idea, but I don’t want to force a leadership role on anyone who doesn’t want the obligation.

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Here it is: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/invasive-interactions

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Unfortunately the moth can’t cold winters as well as well as Tree-of-Heaven. Here in SE Michigan the trees persist, but the moths only get here by dispersing north each summer, so don’t have much impact on the trees.

When they first arrive, hummingbirds that have migrated north often feed at sap wells, both from recent tree injuries and from the wells created by sapsucker woodpeckers. They probably get both energy from the sap and also feed on the small insects there for the sap too. Ruby-throated hummingbirds often nest near sapsucker wells too.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2424873?seq=1

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That explains why their numbers fluctuate so much from year to year.

Thank you for this information. I couldn’t think of many nectar-producing flowers that would be able to sustain hummingbirds early in the season- it makes sense that their nutrition would come from other sources. I have to say, after being mostly plant-focused for many years, I’m really enjoying learning more about other species. iNaturalist is making this learning unfold so easily and so very enjoyably. (I feel like I’m giving an advertisement- but whatever, it’s true!)

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Hi @featherenthusiast, I’d be interested in joining the curation team for this project! I think it’s a really interesting question and it would be quite useful to keep track of. My (self-taught) specialty is invasive plants, so I can definitely help on the plant end of things.

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Great, I will add you in as a curator! So sorry for the delay in replying, I don’t check the forums all that often.

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