Rudbeckia hirta · Asteraceae

Black Eyed Susan for Birds

Black eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is the easy native: bright yellow daisy-like flowers with dark centers from June to October, high drought tolerance, high deer resistance — and, in the Wildflower Center's words, birds enjoy the ripe seeds ¹.

The growing facts below come from the Wildflower Center's record for Rudbeckia hirta ¹; the native-plant case is Audubon's ²; goldfinch diet from All About Birds ³.

Black eyed susan — golden Rudbeckia hirta flowers whose ripe seeds birds enjoy — Photo: Danny S., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What black eyed susan looks like

Depending on conditions it acts as an annual, biennial or short-lived perennial; 2–3 inch yellow flowers with dark brown central cones sit singly atop 1–2+ foot bristly-haired stems ¹. It blooms June through October and grows to about 3 feet ¹.

What the flowers and seeds do for birds

The Wildflower Center lists nectar for bees, butterflies and insects, and seeds for granivorous birds; its comments add that birds enjoy the ripe seeds of Rudbeckia ¹. American Goldfinches eat seeds almost exclusively, especially composites ³ — Rudbeckia is one. It is also a larval host for the Gorgone Checkerspot and Bordered Patch butterflies, so it feeds the caterpillars nesting songbirds need ¹².

Native range and growing conditions

Native from western Massachusetts to Manitoba and Wyoming, south to Florida and New Mexico, and widely naturalized elsewhere, in prairies, meadows, pastures and woodland edges ¹. It wants sun, medium water, and moist to dry well-drained soils, and tolerates juglone from walnuts ¹.

It may bloom longer with some afternoon shade, and can become aggressive if given too perfect an environment and not enough competition ¹.

Planting it for birds: native range and care

Check the native range before buying: the Wildflower Center record for this species lists the states and provinces where it occurs naturally ¹, and Audubon's zip-code native plant database narrows that to your area and the bird groups each plant attracts ². Once established, native plants generally need little maintenance and far less water than lawn, and they do not need the pesticides that make a yard poor bird habitat ².

Native plants are those that occur naturally in the region where they evolved, and Audubon calls them the ecological basis on which birds depend: without them and the insects that co-evolved with them, local birds cannot survive ². The scale matters — a native oak supports over 500 species of caterpillars where a ginkgo hosts five, and it takes more than 6,000 caterpillars to raise one brood of chickadees ². Most nursery landscaping plants are alien species, so choosing natives is the single landscaping decision with the clearest effect on bird populations ².

Birds this plant supports

Plants for american goldfinchs →Plants for house finchs →american goldfinch profile →house finch profile →

More plant guides

Cardinal Flower →Trumpet Honeysuckle →American Elderberry →Canadian Serviceberry →Flowering Dogwood →Winterberry →Common Sunflower →Purple Coneflower →Native plants for birds →Berry plants for birds →Seed plants for birds →Nectar plants for birds →Shelter plants for birds →

Frequently asked questions

Do birds eat the seeds?

Yes — listed as seeds for granivorous birds, and goldfinches feed on composite seedheads ¹³.

Is Rudbeckia hirta deer resistant?

High deer resistance and high drought tolerance per the Wildflower Center ¹.

Is it an annual or a perennial?

It can act as an annual, biennial or short-lived perennial depending on growing conditions ¹.