Plants that attract birds

what are some sturdy plants that will help attract birds, especially songbirds?

I don't know where Oakley is, or what zone you're in, but here are some things you can grow very easily (again, depending on your zone...) that will attract birds:

Pyracantha, Nandina, Bottlebrush, Cotoneaster, Echium, Scabiosa, Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Buddleia, Holly, and many others.
Try getting a Sunset Western Garden Book ...they have a whole section on berry-producing plants and one for plants that attract hummingbirds.

As far as "song-birds" go, where I am, we don't have a huge number of species of birds, but the ones we do have include many varieties of finches, starlings, swallows, mockingbirds, scrub jays, those noisy wild parrots, (!) mourning doves, black ringed doves, wild canaries (I call them wild, but they probably aren't...someone probably just let them loose) Orioles, hummingbirds, and some others I don't know the names of.

I see the birds mentioned above eating the berries and seeds of the plants I listed, and there a many more, but that's all I could think of at the moment !

This message was edited Apr 4, 2008 10:32 PM

Birds love the seeds from my Agastache Honeybee Blue and from my sunflowers along with the echineaces and black eyed susans. Once any of those start to set seed I send flocks of birds out of the garden when I head to the car!

How did I forget Sunflowers??? LOL
tggfisk is so right !

My viburnum shrub is popular with the birds.

I'd also suggest putting in a birdbath for them to splash around and get a drink, I see birds at my birdbath all the time.

Yep, ecrane...Right as usual:-)

anything that have berries, seed heads should be left to dry in winter and also if you dont kill off the worms in your garden with chemicals, this also attracts the birds as you can enjoy watching them dance on top of the grass etc to bring the worms /insects etc to the top, the insects think the birds footwork is rain drops and come to the surface, so the birds are a gardeners friend in more ways than one, also the smaller birds feed on greenfly etc so they help to keep all our enemies at bay too, you can hang some feeders out and lay scraps of food like fat, a few bread crumbs from your left over bread or toaster out for them too, it is a shame to use chemicals in your garden if you are trying to attract the birds as these play havoc with the wild life, the insects you are trying to kill by chemicals, are eaten by the birds so the birds digest the chemicals and either die, or feed these poisoned insects to their young and the chicks die off, if you do have to use the chemicals, try to avoid the nesting times or when the birds are prolific in the garden,
The watering place Ecrane mentioned is a must as there is not always waterways or the likes in our city gardens, good luck, I know you will become hooked on bird watching, Oh and if you have cats close by, dont lay food around the ground or the cats will soon learn to sit in wait for the birds to come feed. best wishes. Weenel.

It's so funny...I just got a new solar powered fountain for my new patio area and put it together today, and not 5 minutes after I had finished putting it together and filled it up there were 3 finches taking a bath in it! And I've seen a hummingbird take a bath once in another fountain I have in my front yard, that was a really cool thing to watch.

How wonderful Ecrane, nature sure helps keep all gardeners amused eh, the more I read your posts, the more I visualise your garden, it sounds like a small piece of heaven right here on earth, you must be very proud of your patch, happy gardening and have a great season. WeeNel.

Thanks WeeNel! My garden does make me happy, although after a hard day of weeding I'm not sure about the piece of heaven part! I don't think heaven would have weeds...at least I sure hope not!

HA, HA, HA, Ecrane, good thinking about the weeds not being part of heaven, well maybe just an orderly scattering of daisies and buttercups would be allowed eh.
Happy gardening just the same. Weenel.