Wildlife and the Dogwood

Will you ever see a nutrition label (like the one on your box of cereal) on the side of a dogwood tree?

Maybe not, but a dogwood tree contains several nutrients essential for wildlife. It's foliage, twigs, and fruit are high in calcium. Browse contains protein, manganese, cobalt and aluminum. The foliage and fruit are high in fat. Even though all these nutrients are essential to wildlife and humans, please don't eat the dogwoods!

Wildlife species reported to use flowering dogwood as a food source and shelter:

Waterfowl (fruit)

Wood duck

Upland Game Birds (fruit, buds)

Wild turkey
Ruffed grouse
Northern bobwhite
Ring-necked pheasant

Songbirds (fruit)

Northern flicker
Pileated woodpecker
Red-bellied woodpecker
Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Downy woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Eastern kingbird
Great crested flycatcher
Tree swallow
American crow
Northern mockingbird
Gray catbird
Brown thrasher
American robin
Wood thrush
Hermit thrush
Gray-cheeked thrush
Swainson's thrush
Eastern bluebird
Cedar waxwing
European starling
Warbling vireo
Red-eyed vireo
Yellow-rumped warbler
Pine warbler
House sparrow
Common grackle
Scarlet tanager
Summer tanager
Northern cardinal
Rose-breasted grosbeak
Evening grosbeak
Pine grosbeak
Purple finch
Song sparrow
White-throated sparrow

Mammals (fruit, wood, twigs, foliage)

White-tailed deer
Raccoon
Striped skunk
Gray fox
Eastern cottontail
Beaver
Gray squirrel
Fox squirrel
Eastern chipmunk
Woodrats
Black bear
White-footed mouse

Source: Mitchell, Wilma A., Gibbs, Patsy A., and Martin, Chester O. 1988. Flowering Dogwood: Section 7.5.9, Wildlife Resource Management Manual. US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg, MS.