Bird Attracting

A garden planted for birds becomes a small working habitat, producing nectar, seed and insect life across the year rather than just looking good from the street. If your goal is a backyard where honeyeaters, lorikeets and wattlebirds are regular visitors, the plants in this collection are selected for exactly that job.

The single most important factor in attracting birds is a continuous food supply. Many Australian natives flower heavily through autumn and winter when food is scarce elsewhere, and these cooler season bloomers are often what turns an occasional visitor into a resident. Look for tubular and brush type flowers, which are built for nectar feeding beaks, and aim for shrubs in the 1m to 3m range that birds can feed from while staying off the ground and away from cats. On smaller blocks, two or three nectar producers with staggered flowering will outperform a single large specimen that blooms once a year.

Structure matters as much as food. Birds move through a garden in layers, so combine taller flowering trees with a mid storey of dense shrubs and some grassy or strappy plants at ground level. This layered approach gives feeding, perching and nesting options in one space, and it also means the garden keeps working for wildlife even between flowering flushes. A shallow dish of water positioned near dense cover completes the picture, giving birds somewhere safe to drink and bathe.

Building out the mid storey is usually the fastest win, and our shrubs collection is a good place to find dense, bird friendly fillers. For the two great workhorses of Australian bird gardens, read our grevillea care guide and callistemon care guide, which cover pruning for repeat flowering, a habit that directly increases the nectar your garden produces. Every order is delivered Australia wide with our satisfaction guarantee, so you can plant your habitat with confidence.