Looking to attract more birds to your garden? Experts reveal 7 plants that naturally provide food to entice feathered visitors

One of the best ways to attract wildlife into your garden is to grow plants that provide them with natural food sources. As it turns out, several plants will keep birds fed, happy and visiting your garden all year long.

Knowing how to attract birds to your garden has several benefits, from improving the space's ecosystem to helping your plants grow more successfully. While there are some expert-recommended foods you can put out in your garden, garden professionals suggest growing specific plant species that will naturally provide food options for birds.

If you're looking to keep your garden busy with feathered friends this year, here are seven plants to grow to ensure your visitors are fed with minimal effort.

7 expert-approved plants to grow to provide food for birds

Whether you're trying out the rewilding trend or looking for some help with decreasing the slug population in your garden, attracting birds is always a great idea.

Even if you don't consider yourself a bird-watcher, there's no denying the joy of hearing bird song and watching a plethora of feathers swooping in and out of your garden.

1. Love-lies-bleeding

As one of the best flower seeds to sow in April, springtime is the perfect season to add this plant to your garden. And the birds will thank you for it.

"Love-lies-bleeding is an easy-to-grow annual that will provide a nutritious banquet of seed in the autumn and winter for finches, sparrows, siskins, and other seed-eating wild birds. Whilst you can sow love-lies bleeding indoors from March onwards, to save time, I wait until late April to sow them directly in my garden in a sunny spot," explains Lucie Bradley, gardening expert at Easy Garden Irrigation.

"For attracting birds, 'Fat Spike’ is a great variety as it produces extremely large and thick upright spikes of crimson flowers, with each plant producing thousands of nutritious, easily accessible seeds for the birds to feed on during the colder months of the year," she adds.

Lucie Bradley

With over 28 years working in the garden industry, Lucie has been fortunate enough to spend every day speaking to both amateur and professional gardeners. Encouraged to garden since she was old enough to walk, she believes that you can never know everything about gardening, as it is constantly evolving.

2. Common Knapweed

It's no secret that wildflowers are amazing for supporting wildlife, which is why we see them continue to be popular with the meadowscaping trend.

"If you love to include wildflowers in your garden and at the same time provide valuable autumnal seeds for goldfinches, then growing Common Kapweed is the answer. Native to the UK, this hardy perennial can be sown directly on well-draining soil in autumn or early spring," says Lucie.

"As with many wildflowers, common knapweed is well adapted to thrive in even poor soil and is a robust plant that can reach between 75 and 90cm in height, producing thistle-like pink-purple flowers from June to September. While these form a valuable source of nectar for beneficial pollinators, leaving the flowers standing throughout the colder months lets them become a reliable source of food for goldfinches," she continues.

Even if you have a bad soil type, wildflowers are usually a reliable plant to add to your garden and will persevere in even the lowest quality of soil.

3. Sunflowers

Once you've mastered when to plant sunflowers and how to keep them supported, they're a low-maintenance addition to your garden that really packs a punch.

"Extremely popular with all gardeners, especially when you're encouraging young children to garden, sunflowers germinate quickly, grow rapidly to grow into tall plants with large and cheerful yellow heads," starts Lucie.

"While we love their stunning impact in our gardens, wild birds will use their flower heads as a fast food source in autumn and winter, with finches, tits and sparrows feasting on the seeds packed with protein and healthy fats," she points out.

"The best sunflower varieties to grow when you want to attract and feed wild birds are those which have the smaller, black oil seeds, as these are more nutritious and have thinner shells, such as ‘Russian Giant’ with its huge 30cm wide flower heads. Although all sunflower varieties, whether single-headed or multi-headed, tall or compact, will provide nutritious seeds for wild birds," Lucie adds.

If you want to plant another round of sunflowers next year, make sure you know how to harvest sunflower seeds before the birds eat them all.

4. Teasels

Teasels are a fantastic plant to keep around when wildlife need a little extra help during autumn, when food is more scarce.

"For wildlife-friendly gardens, growing teasels creates a natural bug hotel for bees, butterflies and moths as well as a valuable food source for goldfinches during the winter months. Robust, native biennials which self-seed prolifically, teasels grow quickly to form tall, spiny flowering stems over two metres in height, making them best suited to larger gardens and the backs of borders," points out Lucie.

"Flowering in July and August, tiny, densely packed flowers of pinky-purple form a cone or egg-shaped head which is usually 4 to 10 cm tall and up to 5 cm wide and naturally attracts bees and butterflies. Leave these flower heads in place and once pollinated, they will turn brown and woody and contain hundreds of tiny seeds which will attract goldfinches from late September onwards," she adds.

5. Honeysuckle

As one of the best fragrant garden plants to scent outdoor spaces, it's no wonder birds and other wildlife happily flock to honeysuckle.

"Honeysuckle is a perfect choice for wildlife-friendly gardens, as it produces sweet-smelling, nectar-rich flowers that attract insects and birds that feed on them. Later in the season, honeysuckle develops berries that provide an additional food source, while its climbing growth also offers shelter and nesting spots," explains Chris Bonnett, founder of GardeningExpress.co.uk.

Chris Bonnett

Chris is the founder of the online garden centre GardeningExpress and has been in the horticulture industry for over 20 years. Whilst he was young he combined his passion for the outdoors with the internet to deliver quality plants across the UK and Europe.

6. Ivy

Whilst you might want to get rid of ivy naturally from your fences and walls, leaving the plant to grow in appropriate areas of your garden can be a big help to birds looking for food.

"Often overlooked, ivy is hugely valuable to wildlife. Its late-season flowers provide nectar when little else is available, supporting insects that birds feed on, and its winter berries offer nourishment during colder months. Dense foliage also creates important shelter," points out Chris.

7. Holly

As one of the fastest-growing shrubs, holly is a common choice for homeowners looking for privacy and space-filling in the garden.

"Known for its glossy leaves and bright berries, holly provides a vital winter food source when other options are scarce, and its dense structure also offers birds shelter from harsh weather conditions," Chris says.

It turns out most of the plants that are great for privacy are also perfect shelters for wildlife, especially birds.

FAQs

What plants do birds like in the UK?

Of course, each country comes with its own native species in both plants and birds. So how can you keep your local birds happy? "In the UK, birds like plants that produce berries and seeds that they can use for food during the colder months," explains Richard Barker, horticulture expert and Commercial Director at LBS Horticulture. "Dense, berry-producing shrubs are a particular favourite, as they can also function as shelter when nesting and offer protection from predators."

Richard Barker

With 4 years in the industry, Richard is an expert in horticulture and the commercial director at LBS Horticulture. He is keen to share his knowledge with both experienced and beginner gardeners, and prides himself in keeping up to date in the latest horticultural trends.

What shouldn't you feed birds?

It's important to know the foods you can and cannot leave out for wildlife, both for birds specifically and other visitors that frequent your garden.

Richard has shared the foods you should not put out for birds...

• Bread: "Although bread is not harmful, it is a bulky, low-nutritional-value food. This means that if birds eat the bread put out for them, they are less likely to eat the nutrient-dense food they actually need to survive," explains Richard.
• Fruit pits and seeds: Whilst birds feed on fruit in the wild, there are many fruit pits and seeds that can contain traces of a cyanide compound that can make smaller birds ill.
• Salt: Richard says, "Salt is in many processed foods people may leave out for birds; you should not give birds food with high salt content, as they cannot process high levels of sodium."
• Dessicated coconut: "Although dried coconut can be in bird food blends, desiccated coconut has a lower moisture content and should not be given to birds. This is because it can be fatal as it can swell in their stomachs once ingested," he finishes.

Another way to increase the amount of wildlife in your garden is to prioritise adding plants for pollinators, which will invite butterflies and bees into your space. Which, of course, will help encourage your florals to grow more and bloom for longer.