It might be a regional thing or a learned behavior. Cotoneaster I believe is not native to North America. So, there may be areas where the birds just haven't learned of it as a food source.

BN

BN, thanks for the response. I want to plant soemthing the birds will eat. I have dogwoods and elderberries but the berries are gone already. I need berries for later in the winter.
Thanks,
VG

Hi VG,
We just have one little cotoneaster bush that we rescued from my MIL's house when they were fixing her foundation, and bulldozing everything. I have tons of birds around here, but have never seen them eating the cotoneaster berries!
I have trouble growing berries for winter too. The birds around here eat everything when its still green! Those little piggies. :)

Hi Catherine,

I was afraid they didn't! The only place I've read that they eat the berries is in landscaping books.

The search continues....:-)

Thanks! I've been wanting a winterberry holly for a long time! That shorter variety would be great.
VG

Holly is a great winter berry shrub enjoyed by many birds (roin, bluebird, etc.). Don't forget a male and female are needed close by for pollination purposes.

We have cotoneaster with lots of berries - I have never seen birds eating them off the plant, but cotoneaster is very twiggy and dense so I often see birds hiding out underneath the plant in winter. Maybe they are eating the dropped berries?

So it's still a good plant for bird gardens because it provides safe cover from predators. Sometimes I throw bird seed in there to give them a snack :-)

From Paghat's site--I cannot independently verify...
Cotoneaster berries are not true berries but are pomes, as are apples. These remain green through summer as they develop, then take on their bright color between mid October (as in the third photo) & late September. The ripened coral-colored fruits remain bright on the branches for the entirety of winter & into the following spring, presuming no bird takes a liking to them. Birds ignore the fruit if there is anything better in the vicinity, but may go for them at some point in winter when there is no tastier choice.

Here is a link that might be useful: the Garden of Paghat

nhblues, I have male and female blue hollies but so far they haven't fruited. How old do they have to be?

ellen, I know those birds appreciate a snack in such a good safe place:-)

greenwill, thanks for the info and the link!

I have seen the birds eating my cotoneaster berries, but I can't say they are popular. It's one of the last things they eat. Mostly I have seen sparrows and robins in it.

Marie

My Bird book lists the Rockspray cotoneasters as a good shrub for the birds because the birds eat the berries. It lists "rufous sided towee, American Robin, thrasher, cowbird and Northern mockingbird as very fond of the berries.
p. 300 of The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher

Probably just as well that they don't like cotoneaster since they are not only non-native, but they are invasive. If you want to plant berrying bushes, try to pick natives because birds are good at eating and then spreading them through the woods and fields where they choke out other beneficial vegetation. Poison ivy, burning bush, bittersweet, buckthorn are all good examples of berrying bushes that birds love to eat, but they are terribly invasive and damage the environment. You might notice that bittersweet is often seen growing under power lines and trees where birds sit and then defecate. What a great adaptive strategy! Too bad it is so damaging to the environment.

A couple of years ago, I planted a huge border of native berrying shrubs. I see the birds eating nearly every type. Their favorites are serviceberries, elderberries, Virginia creeper, almost any kind of viburnum or native dogwood, bayberry and red cedar. The only thing that barely ever gets takers in this neck of the woods is American highbush cranberry (viburnum trilobum). I have heard that this is a regional thing. The bayberry is a big hit and the berries last through the winter providing food for tree swallows in the spring when the bugs aren't out. It is good to have a variety of tender berries and the fattier ones that will last through the winter. I believe bayberry and dogwoods are fattier. Elderberries, serviceberries and many viburnums are tender and tend to get eaten as soon as they are ripe.

Vonyon: One point - poison ivy is a native plant to North America and although it spreads aggressively, it should not be considered invasive in the way that non-native buckthorn and burning bush are. Poison ivy is actually one of the best berry plants for birds!

I do have serviceberry, elderberry and V trilobum. The viburnum always gets hit by spring frosts.

Sounds like I'd be better off to choose other shrubs, not cotoneasters.

Thanks everyone!
VG

I came across this site when I, too, was trying to figure out what eats cotoneaster berries. I've had cotoneaster acutifolia (Peking Cotoneaster) fruiting for several years, but it seems to be always full of berries that I've never seen anything eat. These berries aren't red, though, they're really dark bluish-black.

It's semi-arid shortgrass prairie here (Colorado, just east of the Front Range) so there isn't the wide variety of birds that you have in wetter climates. There are horned larks, house sparrows, house finches, and starlings year-round. Summer adds western kingbird, western meadowlark, some robins, a mockingbird, wilson's warbler, vesper sparrows, indigo buntings. And there are some migrants that pass through.

The Forest Service says cotoneaster acutifolia is good for wildlife, but what might eat the berries is a mystery to me.

Paula

Paula, your observations seem to go along with many other folks'. The experts say birds like them but the birds seem to disagree:)

Maybe not, but my daughter ate some berries about two hours ago. Surprisingly I cannot find much information on the web even though I know the plant name. Entire-leaved Cotoneaster or Cotoneaster integrifolius. I live in the Netherlands, and the poison centre just said that any berry is OK if less than 5 are eaten. Not enough info in my opinion.

Synoniemen: Cotoneaster microphyllus auct. non Wall. ex Lindl., Cotoneaster microphyllus var. thymifolius, Cotoneaster thymifolius Wall. ex Lindl.

cyclops, I hope our daughter is OK!

I live in an area where many cotoneasters were planted many years ago, but they are not native. The birds don't seem to go for them much, but... I think sometimes the cotoneasters provide good habitat and good hunting grounds for birds.... here is why:

Many people in this area have "rockeries"....rockeries are a loose stone wall, with significant planting pockets in between the rocks. These rockeries are used to step down a steep grade in the landscape. Most rockeries were built between 1920 and 1970.

In any case, many of these rockeries have small trailing cotoneasters planted in some of the pockets, and the cotoneasters thrive there. They sort of "hug" the wall, and cascade down. After watching and caring for the cotoneasters in my rockery, I am convinced they are useful for wildlife, but not because of the berries.

First, spiders love to nest in them, and over-winter there. Ground-dwelling spiders seem to love to burrow under the cotoneasters and into the planting pockets.

Second, ground-dwelling bees and small beneficial wasps love to burrow into the ground in these planting pockets that have protective cotoneasters above.

Basically, the cotoneasters are good insect magnets.

Third, the trailing cotoneasters make a dense mat that that the goldfinches love as shelter. Goldfinches are struggling in this residential urban environment to find shelter from domestic predators, and hanging out under the cotoneasters is one of their limited options. Or maybe they are going for the berries and bugs.

I was hoping the berries would be the thing for wildlife with the existing cotoneasters in the yard. That doesn't seem to be true, but there are other advantages.

I live in Northern California. I have some mature Cotoneaster bushes . This time of year Nov 16, the bushes are covered by berries, and covered by Robins. They love them and every year there are more birds, so I can tell you they are safe, and we look forward to seeing their return every year.

You are not sure that birds will eat cotoneaster berries? Well I'm sitting here in my home in West Vancouver and watching the robins swarming to get at my berries.

Old post, but robins swarm them in the SF Bay area too. We also get about a week of cedar waxwings feeding on them every year. I have never seen those birds anywhere else in the area.

Yes old post but certainly still referenced. I do know parrot species love them. I've seen small parrots species gorging on the tiny flower buds and tiny immature fruit. They sit and munch in cotoneaster bushes all day, every day until it's stripped of buds and developing fruit. The dried berries are also included in many of the better more expensive commercial parrot food mixes. Im not sure if the birds are eating the dried berries or the loads of seeds inside but they love them thats for sure. I can say they are safe as commercial bird feed manufacturers wouldn't be using them otherwise. Birds process some mild toxins differently to us, and many things they eat we cant, certainly not in those quantities. Hope that reassures anyone wanting to plant. Only draw back is cotoneaster can be rampantly invasive in some warmer climates and will spread easier than briar rose as each fruit is packed with hard seed that is spread far and wide by berry eaters.