Winter Entertainment.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers offer winter entertainment when left in the ground. If you leave your sunflowers in the ground they will be natural bird feeders and add some interest to the winter garden. As bird feeders they don’t require you to trudge out in the snow every day to fill them.

I grow a row of the giant ones at the end of my vegetable garden. The heads get so large and heavy that they hang down and face the ground. This means that the birds who try to eat the seeds must hang upside down to get them. As the birds work their way towards the center of the seed head they have to stretch, often losing their footing.

Even though there are several sunflower plants the birds all seem to favor one over the other. They will chase each other away to get at the sunflower seeds. I’ve watched as the blue jays actually knock each other off the plant. Even though the blue jays are larger than the hairy and downy woodpeckers the jays take off when the woodpeckers show up.

I could watch the bird’s antics at the sunflowers for hours.