Birds which don't eat flowers?

[LuissaZ]

A little bit of a different query to the usual of 'which plants won't my birds eat'!

Are there are any birds which won't eat flowers or most garden plants etc?

I already have ducks and chickens but wanted birds to roam the more immediate garden areas to add some life and beauty and to give my LGD something extra to feel it can protect 24/7 opposed to just the waterfowl and poultry fenced into their own paddocks!

Any suggestions? Anything which can tolerate the UK climate!

Many thanks for your time,

All the best

 

[21hens-incharge]

I don't think so. They all like random greens and blooms.

Can you put fences around your plantings?

 

[LuissaZ]

Can you put fences around your plantings?

There are only a few ornamental areas so it wouldn't be too much trouble, if spoiling the natural look a little!

There is a vast area so I'm thinking even with peck-happy birds there may be enough other (and more nutritious) nature to sate them and let flowers recover even if they get attention but if they were to start honing in exclusively on the flowers for any reasons in particular it could become annoyance.

Just looking for something ornamental really, nothing in terms of looking for produce or anything like that.

But I think you're right it's just the nature of birds!

Possibly could spray something natural and inert but bitterly distasteful to birds on the plants I wanted them to avoid? Like I say, tons (literally) of everything else for them to eat and copious amounts of fallen apples! Thought I would do some research and see if anyone has found anything which worked out.

It would be nice to have the extra life outside of the pens!

 

[RubelliteRose]

I think instead of finding birds that don't eat flowers, you will have better luck planting flowers that aren't bothered by birds. You may need to fence them off until they get established. I know my chickens doesn't touch my daylilies, hosta, anise hyssop, iris, creeping phlox, daffodils or butterfly weed. I know some of these are toxic to chickens, but they have lots of space to free range (this is probably the key) and completely ignore them.

 

[NatJ]

A little bit of a different query to the usual of 'which plants won't my birds eat'!

Are there are any birds which won't eat flowers or most garden plants etc?

I already have ducks and chickens but wanted birds to roam the more immediate garden areas to add some life and beauty and to give my LGD something extra to feel it can protect 24/7 opposed to just the waterfowl and poultry fenced into their own paddocks!

Any suggestions? Anything which can tolerate the UK climate!

Many thanks for your time,

All the best

I wonder if something like pigeons or quail might work?

I know that chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys will all eat plants.

Bantam chickens might do less damage than big chickens, but they probably still eat enough and scratch enough that you will not want them in your garden areas.

 

[Perris]

A little bit of a different query to the usual of 'which plants won't my birds eat'!

Are there are any birds which won't eat flowers or most garden plants etc?

I already have ducks and chickens but wanted birds to roam the more immediate garden areas to add some life and beauty and to give my LGD something extra to feel it can protect 24/7 opposed to just the waterfowl and poultry fenced into their own paddocks!

Any suggestions? Anything which can tolerate the UK climate!

Many thanks for your time,

All the best

My birds eat some flowers some of the time and others barely ever or never, so I think it's a case of try it and see as RubelliteRose said. Some flowers are very nutritious and the birds know or discover this. For example lawn daisies get eaten on emergence here, and primroses, and fallen petals of others as soon as they hit the ground, such as some of the rose family, but few such plants have been eaten to destruction. Most are just nibbled in passing. I'm looking out right now on aquilegia, spirea, potentilla, choisya, camellia, skimmia, hellebores, pittisporum, lilac, clematis, bluebells and loads of other flowers, all of which are untroubled by free ranging chickens.

btw, welcome to BYC @LuissaZ

 

[WhtRos2]

I don't have any trouble with my chickens eating my perennials. But they'll eat all my impatiens they can reach so have to put them in pots up 3 ft high. But they won't touch my petunias, marigolds and geraniums.