Have you ever wondered how birds feed along their migration trail? I had this conversation with my husband a few months before meeting Tricia Keffer, founder of the educational nonprofit Food Trucks for Birds, at the Native Plant Day at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.
Keffer had a vendor table during the event. My husband and I both felt like we had seen fewer birds in the Keys this year, so we were curious.
“We are the last stop for them to add some fat and make it on their way. It’s 90 miles to Cuba and 130 miles to the Bahamas — no service coming down the plane aisle,” Keffer said.
Keffer is entrepreneurial to the core. She began her career studies in psychology, which led to dolphin training, and then she created a successful vacation portrait business that took her back and forth from Florida to Paris. As technology and the economy shifted, so did Keffer, and she went on to receive a master’s in landscape architecture from Florida International University in 2018.
“‘Food Trucks for Birds — on the Migration Highway’ started as an independent study of plants in Key Largo in 2022,” Keffer said. “The Florida Keys have the most diverse native trees and shrubs in the continental U.S. — 120 species. As I was studying the trees, I took a tree identification class with Florida State Park forest ranger Janice Duquesnel, who mentioned it being ‘about the birds.’
“The ‘food truck’ idea was born when I was traveling down the 18-mile Stretch into Key Largo one evening,” Keffer continued. “The sky was gray, and a rock song, ‘Highway to Hell’ by AC/DC, came on the radio, and I realized these birds were on a highway that was rough.” They had no stops like she did for coffee or gas.
Food Trucks for Birds is education-based. Keffer meets with libraries, organizations and churches and attends local events to spread awareness about bird migration and simple native planting solutions so people can create their own “food truck” for birds on their migration pathway.
“It’s migration education for the DIY person,” she said.
Why do migrating birds matter?
Birds are integral to our ecological system for several reasons — they plant seeds through their feces, eat or peck at bugs, which helps keep trees and plants free from bugs that can destroy them, and more. So, we need birds to help maintain balance in nature.
“Everything has an ecological function and consequence,” Keffer said. “Birds learn to eat small bits of new food over time. So, it could take generations for birds to learn to eat new food versus native.”
“We have changed our ecology faster than they can adapt,” she added. “So planting native trees and shrubs can jump-start our ecology.”
Three-hundred-fifty bird species travel from Alaska to Brazil and are considered neotropical migrants. The Keys are in line with what’s referred to as the Mid-Atlantic Highway; however, they don’t always take the same path.
Keffer also educates people on the importance of tropical hardwood hammocks for birds, which need a place to stop for native food. A hammock is a dense forest of hardwood trees that grow on slightly elevated ground. They are found in tropical and coastal areas and support a wide variety of plants and animals.
In simplest terms, a hammock is a plant (tree) community. Each hammock is named for the dominant plant in the community. As many locals would agree, there is an importance in the sense of community — awareness of the hammocks is just as important.
The Food Trucks for Birds website has a wealth of knowledge, and you can easily download the suggestions and instructions for wherever you live. The plan takes into account three factors: sun to shade, wet to dry, and salt spray. The native plant suggestions take these factors into account. To get started, Keffer recommended pulling up your address on Google Earth Maps to learn about your yard.
Once you understand your yard (ground or pot), you can start as simple as two wild coffee plants and a firebush. Her presentation shares seven native plant suggestions (lignumvitae, locustberry, white stopper, Keys thatch palm, Bahama nightshade, snowberry and wild coffee), but even starting at three plants is a step in the right direction. Use this list to visit your local garden center (such as Island Home MM 88.7) to see if they have them available or can order them for you.
“Find the plants that work together and look pretty. Also, understand your property and any utility lines, above or below ground, before digging,” Keffer said.
If you are interested in watching bird migration, as it tends to happen in the evening, Keffer recommended www.birdcast.info from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Colorado State University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. According to the site, in Monroe County, migration starts to track on March 1 and goes through June 15. Another suggestion is Ebird, an app that you can also use to keep track of sightings.
In Keffer’s presentation, she has a slide with a bird and the quote, “Save the humans — the earth will be fine.” The way we can do this is to also help the birds.
More information is at www.foodtrucksforbirds.com, on Facebook @foodtrucksforbirds, via email foodtrucksforbirds@gmail.com or at 850-585-3242.
