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URBAN POLLINATORS
ABOUT OUR POLLINATOR FRIENDS
Many people are familiar with honey bees being the main pollinators of crops. Did you know that one third of our food was pollinated by bees? Pretty impressive.
What you may not know is that honey bees are not native to North America. They were brought here by European settlers. Yes, they have an important role and give us honey too, but there are also over 4,000 bee species native to North America along with many other pollinators that are just as important to our everyday lives.
Click on the photos below to learn more about our native pollinators in northeast Illinois.
Celebrate
Urban Pollinators
Because of biodiversity loss among plant species around the world, pollinators such as bees, butterflies, other insects, and birds that rely on those plant species have also declined (Winfree, Williams, Dushoff, & Kremen, 2014).
Urban areas generally have even smaller plant diversity, yet some tenacious pollinator species still occupy urban habitats. Although the habitats and preferences of urban pollinators are not well understood, researchers are finding that enough pollinators exist within urban habitat patches to pollinate crops in backyard gardens, community food plots, and urban farm sites. They may rely on pollen resources from only a few plant or tree species (MacIvor, Cabral, & Packer, 2013), but providing the right plants and habitats can entice even more pollinators into the urban landscape.
Without these important urban pollinators, a majority of the food and flower crops we depend on as part of city life would not exist. Explore this site to learn more about pollinators in the big city. Then, decide how YOU can take action and CELEBRATE all they do for us.
Hyde Park Community Garden
Chicago, IL
Oak Park Public Library
Oak Park, IL
Lurie Garden
Chicago, IL
Hyde Park Community Garden
Chicago, IL
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 Small Garden Bumble Bee |  Milkweed Beetle |  Tachinid Fly |
|---|---|---|
 Monarch Butterfly |  Ruby-Throated Hummingbird |  Hawk Moth |
 Ant |
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