Betula papyrifera · Betulaceae

Paper Birch for Birds

Q: When should I prune paper birch?

Not until summer, after the sap has stopped flowing.

Paper birch is the white-barked tree of the Northwoods, used by songbirds, ground birds and mammals, and one of the trees whose seeds goldfinches eat and whose rotten branches chickadees excavate for nests ¹³⁴.

The growing facts below come from the Wildflower Center's record for Betula papyrifera ¹; the native-plant case is Audubon's ²; bird notes from All About Birds ³⁴.

Paper birch — white peeling bark of Betula papyrifera, a tree songbirds and chickadees use — Photo: WindBorneListener, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What paper birch looks like

A 50–75 foot single- or multi-trunked deciduous tree with conspicuous white peeling bark, loosely pyramidal when young and irregular and rounded in maturity, with bright green leaves that turn yellow in fall ¹. It blooms in April and bears small brown samaras ¹.

What paper birch does for birds

Songbirds, ground birds and mammals use this species, and it is a larval host for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and Luna moth ¹. American Goldfinches eat tree seeds including alder and birch ³; Black-capped Chickadees often excavate their own nest cavity in dead snags or rotten branches, frequently alder or birch ⁴. Caterpillars from its two moth and butterfly hosts feed nesting birds ².

Native range and growing conditions

Native from Newfoundland and Labrador to Alaska, south to New Jersey, the Virginia mountains, northeastern Indiana, Wyoming and northeastern Oregon, in low wet areas, moist hillsides and stream banks ¹. It wants sun to shade, high water, and moist, fertile, cool soils ¹.

It requires cool summers where average July temperatures are below 70 °F, is short-lived and sensitive to the bronze birch borer and birch dieback under unfavorable conditions, and should not be pruned until summer when the sap has stopped flowing ¹.

Planting it for birds: native range and care

Check the native range before buying: the Wildflower Center record for this species lists the states and provinces where it occurs naturally ¹, and Audubon's zip-code native plant database narrows that to your area and the bird groups each plant attracts ². Once established, native plants generally need little maintenance and far less water than lawn, and they do not need the pesticides that make a yard poor bird habitat ².

Native plants are those that occur naturally in the region where they evolved, and Audubon calls them the ecological basis on which birds depend: without them and the insects that co-evolved with them, local birds cannot survive ². The scale matters — a native oak supports over 500 species of caterpillars where a ginkgo hosts five, and it takes more than 6,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees ². Most nursery landscaping plants are alien species, so choosing natives is the single landscaping decision with the clearest effect on bird populations ².

Birds this plant supports

Plants for black capped chickadees →Plants for downy woodpeckers →Plants for american goldfinchs →black capped chickadee profile →downy woodpecker profile →american goldfinch profile →

More plant guides

Cardinal Flower →Trumpet Honeysuckle →American Elderberry →Canadian Serviceberry →Flowering Dogwood →Winterberry →Common Sunflower →Purple Coneflower →Native plants for birds →Berry plants for birds →Seed plants for birds →Nectar plants for birds →Shelter plants for birds →

Frequently asked questions

Which birds use paper birch?

Songbirds and ground birds generally; goldfinches eat birch seed and chickadees excavate nest cavities in rotten birch ¹³⁴.

Can I grow paper birch in a warm climate?

It needs cool summers with average July temperatures below 70 °F; elsewhere it is short-lived and borer-prone ¹.

When should I prune paper birch?

Not until summer, after the sap has stopped flowing ¹.