Viburnum berries soon will fuel many of the birds that will start migrating in late summer and fall. Some migrating birds may already have started to switch from protein-based insect diets to the higher-energy, fatty berries on viburnum and other berry bushes. The fat content of various viburnum bushes apparently varies and some reports state that native American viburnums have the highest.
I think that the plant shown here is a nonnative doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum). It has multitudes of large white flowers in spring and even more red and black berries starting in August.
This bush that you see has attracted many of our feathered friends in the late summer and fall. Sometimes we see swarms of berry-gulping birds, especially cedar waxwings and robins. During the winter, resident birds and, sometimes, desperate red squirrels munch on the leftovers until they’re gone. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 4, 2025.)