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Writer's pictureAthena Herder

Welcome to the first BTS

Updated: Sep 20, 2022

I’m starting a new section for the members called Behind the Scenes, these will be pictures, videos, posts, etc. about how things come to be on the website or my other web presences. The first one will be about Feed the Birds Day coming up on February 2nd. These posts will start with BTS and will be categorized BTS for easy viewing.


Welcome to the first BTS; Feed the Birds Day Post


I recently joined the Herbal Circle, and we have a challenge coming up to post as often as possible and to include behind-the-scenes footage. I had never thought about sharing what goes into the more mundane parts of the site like writing posts but figured why not, I’m interested to see how others do it, so I’ll share how I do it.


This post started when I planned out scheduled posts for February. I was looking for days of celebration that I could write posts about and get them scheduled so that there would be content even if I was busy with other things. On the very long list, I saw Feed the Birds Day and thought that’s a cool one, I wish I had known more about herbs when our bird was alive.


At first, I thought I would look and see what things are toxic vs non-toxic to pet birds and do the post about that since my aunt still has a bird and I know she would love such a post, but as I looked around I didn’t see a lot of places citing sources which made me uncomfortable passing on the information.


Then I thought, ok instead of pet birds what about wild birds, since that would encourage people to plant native plants, bird watching, and give some uses for these plants. Off to look up birds of South Carolina and what they eat. During this search, I came across and nice resource of all the toxic vs non-toxic plants out there, it’s searchable and all.


From here I made a spreadsheet listing all the birds that eat medicinal plants, and what plants they eat. Armed with this I looked through which plants showed up the most, which plants I knew, which plants I’m learning, and so on until I finally picked four.


Now that I knew, what plants I was going to cover and what birds ate them, it was time to do the mini monographs for each plant. Since all these plants are new to me, this part took a long time, these plants aren’t run-of-the-mill herbal plants so finding information wasn’t as easy as it normally is. Below you can see all the websites I visited (or at least a large part of them) to compile the information I posted. Not all of these sites were used but they were all looked at and probably at least 10-20 more that I forgot to record.


Websites visited or used in this process:

  • Google

  • https://nationaltoday.com/feed-the-birds-day/

  • https://freerangeparrots.com/2020/10/16/ultimate-list-of-safe-and-toxic-plants-to-birds/

  • http://yourhealthyourplanet.blogspot.com/2011/07/bayberry-monograph.html

  • https://library.fitnessformulary.com/bayberry-myrica-spp/

  • http://www.ndhealthfacts.org/wiki/Myrica_cerifera

  • https://youarethehealer.org/herbal-medicine/herbs-a-z/listed-by-common-name/bayberry-myrica-cerifera/

  • https://www.eattheweeds.com/myrica-cerifera-a-tree-that-makes-scents-2/

  • https://www.scwf.org/winter-backyard-birds

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dark-eyed_Junco/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Bluebird/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/House_Finch/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue-headed_Vireo/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown_Thrasher/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Carolina_Wren/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cedar_Waxwing/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Cardinal/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Goldfinch/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Flicker/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pine_Siskin/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Song_Sparrow/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-rumped_Warbler/lifehistory#food

  • https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-throated_Sparrow/lifehistory#food

  • http://www.ndhealthfacts.org/wiki/Myrica_cerifera

  • https://youarethehealer.org/herbal-medicine/herbs-a-z/listed-by-common-name/bayberry-myrica-cerifera/

  • https://rowanandsage.com/blog/2018/31/12/plant-profile-juniper

  • https://youarethehealer.org/herbal-medicine/herbs-a-z/listed-by-common-name/juniper-berry-juniperus-communis/

  • http://webprod.hc-sc.gc.ca/nhpid-bdipsn/monoReq.do?id=123&lang=eng

  • https://thenaturopathicherbalist.com/herbs/r-s/smilax-officinalis/

  • https://www.henriettes-herb.com/eclectic/kings/smilax.html

  • https://www.herbs-hands-healing.co.uk/herbs/directory/sarsaparilla

  • https://www.herbalpedia.com/blog/?p=111

Below, you can download the excel file I used to pull all the bird information together.



 

BTS was originally for Herbers only. As part of the site redesign, I decided to make them available to everyone.

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