Enjoying these birds feasting on native bee balm outside my kitchen window today. Good reminder on one of the reasons we let annual wildflowers fully brown up.
Anyone know what kind of birds these are? Are there a male and female pair?
Monarda citriodora is also known commonly as Lemon Beebalm, Purple Horsemint, Lemon Mint, Plains Horsemint, Lemon Horsemint, Horsemint, Purple Lemon Mint. Sow seeds in fall for spring wildflowers.
by FallenAsteroid
4 Comments
Well done! This is what it’s all about.
Lesser Goldfinches, lovely songs. We leave a good bit of natives to go to seed, so nice seeing the birds enjoying them.
That’s awesome! Had a finch eating sunflower seeds the other day. Couldn’t get my phone quick enough to get a video of him.
Yes! I had a Master Naturalist friend remind me recently that the birdseed I put out in a bird feeder isn’t “the natural way” birds find seeds to eat, nor are they necessarily getting “native” seeds that way. I’m *supplementing* to compensate for the seeds they can’t find as readily in our ecosystem, due to replacing native plants with grass & non-natives.
So now I’m sure to leave more of my wildflowers out as long as possible, so they have food they’d expect to find here!
Glad to see them enjoying it 🙂