What plants do birds like in your (small) garden?

[JustJam4Tea]

Thinking of putting a pyracantha in. Just replaced a forsythia that had to come out due to building, as the blue tits seemed to love it….

Fairly blank canvas…

pigeons like any vegetable seedlings that I sow, bastards.

We have pheasants to contend with too…gits.

something like a hawthorn, which has spikes on the branches, is great for them to sit in between visits to the feeder. Keeps predator birds away - possibly keeps cats away too. I have large contoneasters whose seeds they eat in Nov and Dec. The rowan berries go quite early.
Plants to encourage insects will please the birds. Ivy flowers very late in the year - bees love that as there is little else. Insects love cotoneaster when in flower.

Cotoneaster and mahonia for the berries (great for bees too!)

Birds in my garden like the shrubs to shelter in while waiting their turn for the bird feeders more than anything I plant for them to feed on. Neighbour’s berberis is brilliant, especially now I’ve trained him not to cut stuff back until after it’s flowered, as the bees adore it.

The firethorn berries are only really enjoyed by the blackbirds here. I would say rowan, (crab) apple, spindle. Teasel (plant, a bit messy) attracts goldfinches, but I have never grown any. And a well-grown oldfashioned hedge, with lots of crossing branches and places to perch and nest.

I’ve had goldfinches balancing on verbena bonariensis seed heads (they seemed to love them but their weight made the stems bend!)

Rowan very popular with blackbirds in our garden. Really interesting point about thorny branches as waiting spots for bird feeder - hadn’t thought about that

Birds in my garden don’t like the cotoneaster, possibly lots of other stuff around that they prefer. They like red currants, rowan, amelanchier, apples, mulberries, holly. Goldfinches like lavender seed heads.

The insect eaters like the tits go for caterpillars and greenfly, so worth going pesticide free. The first couple of years you need to keep your nerve but after that it all balances so pests are kept in check

We've got a 100 year old really tall privet hedge that the birds love. But the garden is so bare at the moment due to the building that it feels like a desert for birds.

The front garden had a lot of tits, wrens and goldcrests in it last year feeding on seed heads.

Bullfinches love the Hypericum berries. The trouble is I don’t like the plant at all! Love the Bullfinches.

Blueberries! They are the most popular. Redcurrant and then blackcurrant runners up. Blackbirds and thrushes adore these.

Pigeons eat everything cotoneaster as do redwings, who arrive en mass and strip them all.

Rowan is loved by all of the above, and rarely, waxwings.

Bluetits like aphids on my roses, and runner beans.

Supposedly goldcrests are SURE to flock to lavender that goes to seed. Well, I built it and they didn't come

Realised that our sparrows love dandelions, not just for seeds, but they eat the leaves.

I had redwings on the cotoneaster. Not this year, though.

Pyracantha is great for blackbirds, and also fills a problem time for pollinators, as it flowers in June, when the spring stuff is over, but the summer things aren't really available. Beekeepers know it as the "June gap". So it's a good one. Do watch the size though, I had to execute ours as it was way too big to be where it had been put.

We have apple trees, which brings in green woodpeckers, they love the apples.

Most oddly, we have a lot of Lords and Ladies infesting our garden. The jays assiduously pulled the leaves, flew up into the apple tree, and stripped out the stalk to eat. It was great!

By far the most popular plant in my garden is a wild cherry tree. It’s fairly small but covered in bull finches at this time of the year.

Blueberries are good for blackbirds and roses are great for blue tits. They don’t like the roses, but love all the insects that are attracted to them!

Most years we have a few weeks when the sparrows (and sometimes other birds) come and rip the penstemon to shreds. Not sure why, but they seem to love it!

Bluetits love eating sawfly larvae off the dog rose, and they like the moss off the front "lawn" for their nest. Blackbirds like the holly and barberry berry's. Bees also like the barberry.

@TheSpottedZebra

Supposedly goldcrests are SURE to flock to lavender that goes to seed. Well, I built it and they didn't come

Never mind. Keep your eye open for humming bird hawk moths instead

I had goldcrest in my yew bush, they loved creeping about inside it and winkling out insects from the nooks and crannies. Sadly not seen them for the last year or so.

Goldcrest also like conifers. As do many other birds.

Dandelion clocks for the goldfinches, only time I get a big group is when the lawn is full of dandelions. Apple, crabapple, rowan and roses all popular in spring and summer for the greenfly and autumn for the fruit. We've got a huge buddleia bush (that I hate) but the birds love it, especially the blue tits and coal tits they eat the seeds and queue in it to use the bird feeder. Also the cotoneaster attracts lots of birds when there's berries on it and we get bumble bees nesting in it in the summer.

I've lined up the dogs for good furminator session, and will leave the hair out, because there's lots of birdies loitering about.,

@ChardonnaysPetDragon if your dogs have been treated with flea treatment the hair could be toxic for birds 😬

Not recently, good shout though.