Attracting birds to your garden by growing the right wildflowers can be a natural alternative or supplement to buying Wild bird food. Grown correctly, wildflowers can offer a permanent food source for garden birds through the important winter months and rest of the year.
Seed-eating birds
Many garden birds rely on seeds as their main food source. They can usually be identified by their thicker bills for example House sparrows and Fiches. In nature, such birds depend on wild meadow seeds and berries to sustain them through the winter months. On farmland a recent trend towards autumn cereal sowings has resulted in the disappearance of winter stubble fields. This in turn is thought to have contributed to a decline in seed-eating farmland birds. In recent years, certain birds for example siskins and blackcaps have even moved into gardens over winter, exploiting new habitats in order to survive.
A few of the best wildflowers for seed-eating birds include, Cornflowers, Knapweeds, Scabious, Burdock and Teasels. Birds such as Goldfinches will visit the seed-heads of these varieties in autumn and winter and there are many other wildflowers useful for attracting birds to your garden.
Insect-eating birds
Many of the above wildflowers also provide a refuse for insects that will overwinter in the dead stems and seed-heads. It follows the same wildflowers can also attract insectivorous birds such as robins, tits, wrens and goldcrests.
Fruit-eating Birds
Birds such as Blackbirds and Thrushes are slightly harder to cater for and tend to prefer fruits and berries. Try growing Wild Strawberries or Lords and Ladies to attract blackbirds in summer and leave a patch of untamed brambles for a continuous food supply into autumn. Greenfinches will also find the lure of blackberries irresistible. In the winter months Thrushes will depend on the berries and fallen fruit of trees and shrubs, so try growing Hawthorn, Holly, Crab apple, and Mountain Ash.
On our website we offer various seed selections which include wildflowers to attract birds, butterflies, bees and other wildlife.
We also have a range of over 160 individual native wildflower seed packets many of which are reliable for attracting birds to your garden.
