Keeping Common Birds Common

Serviceberry is also known as shadblow, shadbush or juneberry, reflecting the fact it is one of the earliest trees to produce fruit in summer. The fruits resemble small blueberries. As many as 35 species of birds including Cedar Waxwings, Gray Catbirds, orioles, grosbeaks, cardinals and various thrushes, as well as chipmunks and other squirrels, are known to feast on its fruit, sometimes even before it is fully ripe.

Serviceberry is used for medicine, food, and spiritual practices in many Indigenous communities across North America, spanning the Pacific Northwest, Great Plains and Northeast Woodland communities. Some communities along the Hudson River Valley have correlated the blooming of the serviceberry flower with the start of shad fish migration, which is where the common names “shadblow” and “shadbush” came from.