Amur honeysuckle is invasive but it produces a lot of fruit for wildlife.

These bright red berries make northern cardinals quite red if they eat them while they’re molting — which they are doing right now.

Unfortunately honeysuckle fruit is not as nutritious as our native red berries, such as dogwood, so the birds look great but they don’t get as much fat and protein as they’d find in native fruit.

Seeds from the bird feeder can round out their diet.

(photo by Kate St. John)