When people think about helping garden birds, they often picture feeders and bird tables. Wildflowers aren’t always the first thing that comes to mind—but they should be. From providing seeds and insects to creating safe, natural shelter, wildflowers quietly support birds at every stage of their lives. A garden full of wildflowers isn’t just good for bees and butterflies—it’s a lifeline for birds too.
The Wildflower Seeds That You've Received
Name: Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus)
Type: Annual
Blooms: Late spring to late summer (typically May–August in the UK)
Fascinating fact: Once a common sight in UK cornfields, cornflower populations crashed with modern agriculture — but its nectar-rich flowers are now recognised as especially valuable for bees and its seedheads are eaten by finches later in the year, making it a classic “pollinator → bird” food-web plant.
Name: Corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas)
Type: Annual
Blooms: Late spring to early summer (typically May–July)
Fascinating fact: Its tiny seeds can lie dormant in soil for decades and still germinate when the ground is disturbed—one reason corn poppies famously flourished on World War I battlefields and became a symbol of remembrance
Name: Corn marigold (Glebionis segetum, formerly Chrysanthemum segetum)
Type: Annual
Blooms: Late spring to early autumn (May–September)
Fascinating fact: Its bright yellow flowers actually close at night and reopen in the morning, like tiny sun-following clocks—earning it the nickname “the farmer’s weather flower”
Name: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Early summer to early autumn (June–September)
Fascinating fact: Yarrow has been used for thousands of years as a battlefield first-aid plant—its leaves were pressed onto wounds to help stop bleeding, earning it the nickname “soldier’s woundwort”
Name: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Early summer to early autumn (June–September)
Fascinating fact: Yarrow has been used for thousands of years as a battlefield first-aid plant—its leaves were pressed onto wounds to help stop bleeding, earning it the nickname “soldier’s woundwort”
Name: Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Late spring to late summer (May–August)
Fascinating fact: Its seed pods spread out like a bird’s toes—hence the name—and the plant is a superstar for pollinators, providing nectar for bees and food for caterpillars of several blue butterfly species
- Name: Greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa)
- Type: Perennial
- Blooms: Early to late summer (June–September)
- Fascinating fact: When the flowers set seed, goldfinches and other seed-loving birds cling acrobatically to the stems, hanging upside down to pluck out the seeds—turning the plant into a natural bird feeder in late summer
Name: Field forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis)
Type: Annual
Blooms: Spring to early summer (April–July)
Fascinating fact: Though tiny, its seeds are eaten by small farmland birds, and the low, dense growth provides safe foraging cover for fledglings, helping young birds hide from predators while they learn to feed
Name: Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Late spring to summer (May–August)
Fascinating fact: As the flowers fade, they produce protein-rich seeds eagerly eaten by finches and sparrows, and the tall stems are often used as song posts by meadow birds staking out territory
The food webs you'll be creating
Name: Corn poppy (Papaver rhoeas)
Type: Annual
Blooms: Late spring to early summer (typically May–July)
Fascinating fact: Its tiny seeds can lie dormant in soil for decades and still germinate when the ground is disturbed—one reason corn poppies famously flourished on World War I battlefields and became a symbol of remembrance
Name: Corn marigold (Glebionis segetum, formerly Chrysanthemum segetum)
Type: Annual
Blooms: Late spring to early autumn (May–September)
Fascinating fact: Its bright yellow flowers actually close at night and reopen in the morning, like tiny sun-following clocks—earning it the nickname “the farmer’s weather flower”
Name: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Early summer to early autumn (June–September)
Fascinating fact: Yarrow has been used for thousands of years as a battlefield first-aid plant—its leaves were pressed onto wounds to help stop bleeding, earning it the nickname “soldier’s woundwort”
Name: Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Early summer to early autumn (June–September)
Fascinating fact: Yarrow has been used for thousands of years as a battlefield first-aid plant—its leaves were pressed onto wounds to help stop bleeding, earning it the nickname “soldier’s woundwort”
Name: Bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Late spring to late summer (May–August)
Fascinating fact: Its seed pods spread out like a bird’s toes—hence the name—and the plant is a superstar for pollinators, providing nectar for bees and food for caterpillars of several blue butterfly species
- Name: Greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa)
- Type: Perennial
- Blooms: Early to late summer (June–September)
- Fascinating fact: When the flowers set seed, goldfinches and other seed-loving birds cling acrobatically to the stems, hanging upside down to pluck out the seeds—turning the plant into a natural bird feeder in late summer
Name: Field forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis)
Type: Annual
Blooms: Spring to early summer (April–July)
Fascinating fact: Though tiny, its seeds are eaten by small farmland birds, and the low, dense growth provides safe foraging cover for fledglings, helping young birds hide from predators while they learn to feed
Name: Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)
Type: Perennial
Blooms: Late spring to summer (May–August)
Fascinating fact: As the flowers fade, they produce protein-rich seeds eagerly eaten by finches and sparrows, and the tall stems are often used as song posts by meadow birds staking out territory
Some Of The Birds That You Might See In Your Garden
Eurasian Robin (Erithacus rubecula)
Diet: Insects, worms, and spiders; berries and seeds in winter.
UK numbers: Around 6–7 million breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: The robin’s red breast isn’t for charm—it’s a warning. Robins are fiercely territorial, and that splash of red is a visual threat signal, which is why they’ll even attack their own reflection.
Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)
Diet: Tiny seeds—especially thistle, teasel, and dandelion (plus nyjer at feeders), and several types of wildflower seeds. Chicks rely heavily on insects
UK numbers: ~1.5–2 million breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: The goldfinch’s beak is a precision tool evolved specifically to extract seeds other birds can’t reach. Its name Carduelis comes from carduus—Latin for thistle—meaning this bird is literally named after the plant that shaped its evolution.
Dunnock (Prunella modularis)
Diet: Small insects, spiders, and seeds, mostly found on the ground.
UK numbers: Around 2–3 million breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: Despite its shy appearance, the dunnock has an unusually complex mating system. Females often mate with several males, who compete fiercely to ensure they get to father—and feed—the chicks.
Greenfinch (Chloris chloris)
Diet: Seeds are the staple—especially sunflower hearts, wildflower seeds, buds, and grains; insects for chicks.
UK numbers: Around 1–2 million breeding pairs, though numbers have fallen sharply since the mid-2000s.
Fascinating fact: Greenfinches have one of the strongest bills of any small UK songbird, allowing them to crack hard seeds other finches can’t
Eurasian Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)
Diet: Insects in spring and summer; nuts and seeds (especially hazelnuts and peanuts) in winter.
UK numbers: Around 200,000–250,000 breeding pairs, mainly in England and Wales.
Fascinating fact: The nuthatch is the only UK bird that can walk head-first down tree trunks. It even wedges nuts into bark crevices and hammers them open—using trees as natural anvils to survive winter.
Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
Diet: Insects and caterpillars in spring; seeds and nuts in autumn and winter.
UK numbers: Around 3–4 million breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: A single blue tit brood can consume over 10,000 caterpillars before fledging—making this tiny bird one of the most important natural pest controllers in British woodlands and gardens.
Great Tit (Parus major)
Diet: Insects and caterpillars in spring; seeds, nuts, and fat in winter.
UK numbers: Around 2.5–3 million breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: Great tits are cultural innovators. They famously learned how to pierce milk bottle tops to steal cream—and the behaviour spread across Britain as birds copied one another, a rare example of learned tradition in wild birds.
Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)
Diet: Small insects, spiders, and other invertebrates, picked from crevices and undergrowth.
UK numbers: Around 8–9 million breeding pairs, making it one of Britain’s most common birds.
Fascinating fact: Despite being tiny, the wren has one of the loudest songs in the bird world for its size, powerful enough to cut through wind, rain, and rushing water—earning it the nickname “the voice of the countryside.”
House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)
Diet: Seeds and grains, plus insects for chicks; frequent users of garden feeders.
UK numbers: Around 5–6 million breeding pairs, though numbers have fallen sharply since the 1970s.
Fascinating fact: House sparrows are deeply social and rarely live alone. Their dramatic decline is a warning sign: when sparrows disappear, it often means entire urban ecosystems are quietly failing.
Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)
Diet: Seeds and grains, with insects taken in spring—especially for chicks.
UK numbers: Around 6–7 million breeding pairs, making it one of Britain’s most common birds.
Fascinating fact: The chaffinch’s Latin name coelebs means “bachelor,” because early naturalists thought winter flocks were all male—unaware the females had simply migrated south.
Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos)
Diet: Worms, insects, snails, and berries.
UK numbers: Around 1–1.3 million breeding pairs, following long-term decline.
Fascinating fact: Song thrushes use favourite stones as “anvils” to smash snail shells—and can return to the same anvil for years, leaving piles of broken shells as evidence of a remarkably tool-like behaviour.
Common Blackbird (Turdus merula)
Diet: Worms, insects, and berries; also fruit in gardens.
UK numbers: Around 5–6 million breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: Blackbirds have highly individual songs, and neighbours can recognise one another by voice alone—turning every dawn chorus into a map of invisible territorial boundaries.
Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
Diet: Tiny insects and spiders, with seeds and fat taken in winter.
UK numbers: Around 300,000–400,000 breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: Long-tailed tits build one of the most complex nests of any bird in the world—an elastic dome made from moss, spider silk, and up to 2,000 feathers, so well camouflaged it can stretch as chicks grow and almost vanish into its surroundings.
Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
Diet: Insects, worms, and larvae; also fruit and scraps, especially in winter.
UK numbers: Around 1.5–2 million breeding pairs, after major long-term decline.
Fascinating fact: Starling murmurations can involve hundreds of thousands of birds moving as a single fluid organism—each bird reacting to only its nearest neighbours, creating vast, living shapes that ripple across the sky without a leader.
Coal Tit (Periparus ater)
Diet: Insects in spring and summer; seeds—especially conifer seeds—and peanuts in winter.
UK numbers: Around 600,000–700,000 breeding pairs.
Fascinating fact: Coal tits routinely cache hundreds of seeds, hiding them across their territory and remembering the locations for weeks — an extraordinary feat of spatial memory packed into one of Britain’s smallest tits.
Eurasian Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)
Diet: Seeds and berries, but especially tree buds in late winter and spring.
UK numbers: Around 190,000–220,000 breeding pairs, after long-term decline.
Fascinating fact: Bullfinches can destroy an entire fruit crop without eating a single fruit—by precisely snipping off buds weeks before they ever open, a feeding strategy so efficient it once made them one of Britain’s most persecuted birds.
Why Wildflowers Are So Important For Garden Birds
Most garden birds don’t just eat seeds - they need insects, especially when raising chicks. Wildflowers support caterpillars, beetles, flies, and aphids that birds feed on. Plants like oxeye daisy, bird’s-foot trefoil, and red clover are buzzing with insect life, helping birds find the soft, nutritious food young birds need to grow strong.
Wildflowers are a natural food source for many UK garden birds. As flowers fade, they produce seeds that birds rely on, especially in autumn and winter. For example, Corn Poppy, Corn Marigold, Cornflower and Oxeye Daisy seeds all provide superb nutrition for finches and buntings, particularly when food is scarce elsewhere.
Wildflowers do more than feed birds - they give them somewhere to live. Tall stems and thick growth offer shelter from predators, places to forage safely, and materials for nests. In winter, standing plants protect insects and provide cover from cold winds, making gardens feel more like the natural spaces birds are used to.