Thanks for taking part in this exciting giveaway in partnership with Happy Beaks, a brilliant bird seed supplier with a wealth of garden bird information including a British bird library and bird feeding tips. This competition has now closed, but congratulations to our winner Emily S.
Please keep an eye on our competition page for future giveaways. If you’re looking for more bird-friendly ideas? Try these…
Top 5 garden plants for birds
Birds feed from the heads of sunflowers in autumn
Image: Sunflower ‘Russian Giant’ – Start-A-Garden™ Seed Range from Thompson & Morgan
If you love to see birds in your garden, it’s easy to fill a few feeders with good quality bird food. But with a little planning, you can also pack your borders with the plants, flowers, shrubs and trees that provide the vital food and shelter they need.
Here are five plants that will attract birds to your garden:
1. Sunflowers
These distinctive gold and bronze sunflowers look great in containers
Image: Sunflower ‘Solar Flash’ F1 Hybrid Seeds from T&M
Sow sunflower seeds from March onwards to enjoy a spectacular display through summer and into autumn. Easy to grow, simply choose compact varieties if you want to grow them in containers and small borders.
When the brightly-coloured flowers have faded, they form large, round seed heads. Rather than cutting the stems down, leave them in place as a high-energy food source to sustain visiting birds throughout the year. Rich in essential nutrients like protein, healthy fats and carbohydrates, the seeds are especially valuable during colder months or when other food is scarce. Finches, long-tailed tits and nuthatches particularly enjoy sunflower seeds.
2. Crab apple tree
The yellow fruits of this crab apple deepen to a dark glossy scarlet in time for Christmas
Image: Crab Apple ‘Red Sentinel’ from T&M
Crab apple trees vary in size, from compact specimens suitable for container gardens through to full-sized varieties that reach 5 or 6m tall. Benefiting from a long season of interest, they produce a profusion of pink or white blossom in spring followed by small fruits that mature in autumn and persist well into winter.
Crab apples are especially loved by starlings, thrushes, waxwings and blackbirds. The unharvested fruits soften after a few frosts to create a nutritious snack for the local feathered community.
3. Holly
This variegated female variety produces a fabulous display of scarlet winter berries
Image: Holly ‘Golden King’ from T&M
Holly can be grown as a thick, evergreen hedging plant or a tree. Easy to grow and maintain, you can clip it into a formal shape or leave it to grow more naturally. The green leaves provide a perfect backdrop for the scarlet berries that remain on the plant until late winter. You’ll need a male and a female plant for pollination – only the females produce berries.
Loved by blackbirds, redwings and song thrushes, the small, calorie-rich holly berries are a convenient food source for a wide range of birds throughout the winter. Packed with carbohydrates and healthy fats, they offer a concentrated source of energy that helps birds maintain their body temperature and overall health in harsh weather conditions. But it’s not only the berries that birds love. Holly leaves are dense and evergreen, providing secure shelter from predators.
4. Ivy
Providing a paradise for wildlife, ‘Woerner’ makes a wonderful evergreen hedge
Copyright: Alamy Stock Photo
Ivy is a shade-tolerant, evergreen climber that quickly covers walls, fences and trellises with a leafy display. A great way to conceal an eyesore, it’s easy to grow and doesn’t require fixings to help it cling. If left unpruned and allowed to establish itself, ivy becomes more shrubby. In this adult phase, it flowers every autumn and produces berries in winter.
A versatile source of food and habitat for birds, densely-grown ivy is a valuable haven. Its thick foliage provides protection from predators and harsh weather conditions, making it an ideal habitat for small birds such as wrens, robins and sparrows. Additionally, the intertwined stems and leaves create a complex and secure environment that birds can use for building their nests. In terms of food, the small, dark berries are a rich source of calories, helping birds sustain their energy levels. Thrushes, blackbirds and starlings relish these berries, while birds like robins and wrens enjoy feasting on the wide variety of insects that make ivy their home.
5. Honeysuckle
In sheltered gardens ‘Gold Flame’ retains its rounded green foliage all year round
Copyright: Darby Nursery Stock Ltd
If you don’t have much space, traditional climbing honeysuckles are a clever way to make your garden more bird-friendly. Trained over fences, pergolas or trellis, the gorgeous flowers bring a welcome flush of colour and scent to any garden.
Honeysuckle serves as a valuable resource for birds, offering both nourishment and habitat within its intricate growth. The twining vines and dense foliage provide hiding spots from predators and safe spaces for nesting. In terms of food, honeysuckle produces small, nectar-rich flowers that attract insects. These flowers eventually give way to clusters of berries that are an important food source for birds like warblers, thrushes and finches in the late summer and autumn months. The ripening berries also offer a concentrated energy supply at a crucial time for birds that are preparing to migrate.
We hope this has helped you to incorporate more plants and flowers for birds. For a wealth of information and advice on wildlife gardening, visit our dedicated hub page.
The Thompson & Morgan horticultural team produces a wealth of content around gardening and food production. Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.
The birds around my parts wil be very happy indeed to recieve this prize and can look forward to me growing next year’s seeds – wonderful prize!
Thank you
Great giveaway
Have most of the plants & love to what the birds & squirrels plus the hedgehog making the most of the food
I would love to win this amazing prize
The birds in my garden need these.
I’m always buying food and seeds for the birds
I’d love to win this prize draw & I’m quite sure the local bird population will be very happy. The bird food I currently put out is gone in a flash!
At this time of year birds must be spoilt for choice on seeds & berries. Come winter – another story!
How I wish that I could rescue my sunflower seedlings from slug attacks! Tried many ways other than pellets, but still a struggle!
Hello Alyson. I suggest that you raise your sunflower seedlings under cover and don’t put them into their final planting positions until they have grown larger and toughened up a bit. You may also find this article helpful: https://blog.thompson-morgan.com/slug-and-snail-control-the-ultimate-guide/. Personally, I have found that encircling each sunflower plant with wool pellets after planting them out has been quite effective.
I love gardening and nature, (bees and butterflies)I would love to win the prize!
I love gardening and nature, would live to win the prize!
Sunflowers are possibly one of my time favourite flowers. 2024 is going to be my year to fill my garden with as many as possible xx
Happy Beaks makes happy birds for people to enjoy.
My birds love your sunflower heart’s
What a terrific prize.I am an elderly lady. Spend hours watching our birds on their feeders. Who ever wind this will be so happy. Good Luck Everyone.
Love watching the birds feed
YES PLEASE.
Who doesn’t want to encourage the wildlife into your garden, both ThompsonMorgan and happybeaksuk know how to do it best!
Wonderful prize ❤️
Love birds and encouraging them to visit my garden
What a wonderful prize.
Love the birds in our garden and love to plant for them.
I’m retired now but I will Wych the birds out of windows
Would love to win this, i have a lot of birds visiting,
They are all beautiful
Would really like a Bird Food Bungle have Bird Station & they sure are hungry bird’s here in Scotland!A Wonderful Giveaway
Wonderful Giveaway have a Bird Station & lots of very hungry Bird’s in Scotland !
Fantastic selection of food to feed the b irds
Fantastic group of food for the birds, we need to keep feeding them
Would love to win for my birds
Lovely
Love sunflowers