It depends what is the intended use. What Chris King wrote does not indicate that the developer has any intention that the plantings be of value to birds, so I would prefer to address that question first. Otherwise what is the point?
I hope I am not generalising too much here: Bamboo are species of grass and thus they are flowering plants, so it has flowers, but as grass is wind pollinated, the flowers are small. I think the point from Christine Melrose is that the flowers don’t have nectar, so that honeyeaters won’t use them. I don’t know about all bamboo but many large grasses produce large seed heads that many birds such as House Sparrows like to use as nest lining (Pampas grass in particular though I don’t know if that is a bamboo -probably not). As far birds go, bamboo, once it is big enough is a good overnight roosting site for communal species such as House Sparrows, Common Mynas and Common Starlings. That is not a good bird option and you can well suggest that as a deterrent, that it will very likely attract noisy and dirty activities of birds that most people don’t want (dusk noise, lots of poops).
I can’t think of any benefit that bamboo would bring to the area in terms of helping with native birds. But is that the intent of the developer? There are many other considerations. A food source for pandas in case Taronga zoo ever gets them again?
Philip
