Native plants can transform your yard into a backyard habitat – and Al Roker’s reaction on the TODAY Show says it all. “Wow. Wow. 9,000.”

That’s how many caterpillars a mama chickadee needs to raise one brood. Most American yards have zero. Not because you did anything wrong – the ornamental plants most of us grow (hostas, pachysandra, imported grasses) came from Asia and Europe. Native caterpillars can’t eat them. The chickadee flies past.

Wildr CEO Jo Hall and Chief Naturalist Murray Fisher joined Al for National Garden Week to show how native plants for birds and wildlife actually work – live on set, with live caterpillars. Big bluestem hosts 22 caterpillar species. Switchgrass hosts 15. One native oak supports 570. That’s the difference between a yard a chickadee ignores and one she nests in.

They also brought a live Cecropia moth caterpillar on set – the kind that becomes the largest flying insect in North America. All it needs is a cherry tree. Most people cut them down.