House Finch House Salad

Like many of our neighbors, part of our yard's landscaping includes autumn joy sedums. They begin as sturdy, green stalks in the spring, growing green flower heads that bloom into a beautiful red as summer fades (shown in the photo- I had to add this because there's a cautious blue jay peeking out from behind the spiral bush).

These red flower heads, brimming with seeds, are a popular food choice in the fall for our resident house finches. The nearly flat head provides a convenient platform for them to land, and sometimes they just perch there to rest, even in the winter.

Knowing this, I made up my mind a long time ago that any changes to our landscaped shrubbery will not include removing these sedums. Besides feeding the birds they're just really easy to care for.

Imagine my delight when I noticed small birds land on the sedum stalks and drink rain water that had collected in the curles of the leaves.

And I also only recently noticed that when my finches want a little salad, they just nibble on bits of leaves!

Here's one chewing on a piece.

The scars from past meals.