But milkweeds are also useful for birds, particularly as nesting materials.
Milkweeds grow ball-shaped clusters of flowers that can be purple, pink, red, white, green, yellow, or orange. In late summer, narrow green seed pods adorn these plants. Milkweed famously attracts monarch butterflies and provides food for their caterpillars. As monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, they develop a toxicity that makes them undesirable to predators as an adult. But milkweeds are also useful for birds, particularly as nesting materials.