🌻😉

present year round, and they don't touch the sunflowers' leaves for whatever reason, despite the chickadees being omnipresent at our nearby feeders.

Our sunflowers still get ravaged as you have captured in that pic, however, but by Lesser Goldfinches instead.

And no, I've got no idea how to prevent it. We've tried out-planting their appetite, that was only marginally successful. We ended up with a bunch more only slightly less moth-eaten sunflowers.

The leaves are rich in minerals such as calcium, and some leaves are also collected for nest building. Here in the east, Yellow Goldfinches are also late breeders and have their own unique behaviors. There are several other flowering plants whose leaves Lesser
Goldfinches prefer. You might plant those in the same flower-bed to minimize the damage to the sunflower plants.

Thanks for helping me understand what is happening.
I had mistaken the Lesser Goldfinches for Chickadees.
It all makes sense now.

Lesser Goldfinches will nibble on these leaves as well