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All this winter my various stands of bamboo, mostly Phyllostachys, became night roost for at least many hundreds of Robins. The would come in around twilight in groups of 50-100, fly around randomly for about a half hour, then settle in the bamboo. They took off every morning around dawn except in the most severe storms. Starting late winter, they were joined by large flocks of blackbirds. These exhibited similar behavior, except before settling in, they flew around in tight but fluid groups, before choosing a stand and diving in all at once.

I was in contact with an ornithologist who told me this was normal behavior, but this year might be first time there was a large overwintering flock of migrant robins on this island. It was first time it ever happened in my yard, that is for sure.

Here are a couple of pictures of guano build up, it show up best on this old oil tank, but like that under most of my stands, especially at edges or where bamboo is leaning.

Most of the birds have headed out now, but I'm sure all these droppings will be boon for the bamboo. The birds were interesting this winter, including the hawks they attracted, but not sad to see them go. There were so many I could smell the evening excrement.

I had the same thing once in Indiana, I used to walk past them at dusk after they roosted just to hear the cacophony when I walked past.

You mentioned it happened once, so I take it it was a one-off event? That aligns with what the ornithologist said, he said it was pretty random.

Blackbirds, sparrows and lately common starlings. They occupy bamboo in large numbers, making mess and unbelievable noise around dawn and dusk. If you get close, you can hear them scream and the whole bamboo moves as they jump around and fight for a free spot in the canopy.

It's interesting that in the beginning, none of them really liked the bamboo. It was impossible to make nests on it, because it was so flexible and their half built nests just fell off. Since then, at least some have managed to figure out how to build the nest in the densest part of the grove though. It's interesting how the ecosystem adapts. We always had a lot of birds around here, but not nearly as many. Bamboo is occupied during whole year, but the sound and number of different birds peaks during summer. Each morning there's a symphony, the first that start singing are blackbirds, then manure hits the fan..

I think once it was unreal how many there were but that grove then always seemed to have lots of them after that.

My groves are all smaller so can't really support big flocks, but they're definitely winter night roosts for the local birds, mainly sparrows and the like. It's noisy in a satisfying way IMO.

Will that guano be the only fertilizer applied? (or will it replace what you normally use?)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aaNpJd ... p=drivesdk

That's how they 'sing'.
And that was in april, things escalated during the summer. Sparrows make so much noise that you can't even distinguish individual sound, it's just noise.

My pyracantha bushes produce berries in late winter. Several bird species devourer them when they ripen. The birds get drunk from the berry juice.