DEARBORN — Just as most flowers around town have started to wither away from the approaching cold weather, some new blooms are just beginning.

A few hundred small plants began peeking through the ground around the Ford Motor Co. World Headquarters a few weeks ago and have since quickly grown more than two feet tall.

What you are seeing are sunflowers, purposely planted by Ford just after its centennial celebration in June.

The fields are planted as an alternative to having barren lots of dry sand, and also to help provide feed for birds.

"Instead of letting the land just sit, it’s a temporary productive reuse for it," said Angie Kozleski, spokesperson for Ford.

Along with the sunflower fields, Ford has planted fields of corn, wheat, and soybeans all around metro Detroit.

Ford planted sunflowers on the Hubbard side of the headquarters, but this year is the first time anything has been planted on the Michigan Avenue side of the building.

After the thousands of people, monster trucks, classic cars, and horses trampled the land around the building during the centennial celebration, the company decided it would be more productive and less cost in maintenance to plant the sunflowers rather than re-seed the grass.

All of the sunflower fields are an effort by Ford to have certified wildlife sites to help birds. They are purposely planted late so that they hit full bloom around early October when birds are looking for food to fatten up for the winter months.

"Last year, there were more birds in the Dearborn area because of the fields," said Kozleski.

"The sunflowers, if they have enough time to bloom, get pollinated, and set seed, will attract birds as a food source," said Julie Craves, Rouge River Bird Observatory University of Michigan-Dearborn

"Sunflower seeds have a high oil content, which helps birds put on insulating fat which they need in the winter months," she said.

The fields, said Craves, will not attract all species of birds but only ones that eat the seeds produced by the flowers, which means an increase in the number of finches and sparrows around the city.

Also, Craves suspects the large number of small birds attracted by the sunflowers will lure in larger predatory birds like American Kestrels or Cooper’s Hawks.

Ford has several different locations around town that are supporting these late-blooming sunflowers.

In addition to the 20 acres at Michigan Avenue and Southfield, Ford has 20 acres at Hubbard and Southfield, 15 acres planted at Southfield and Rotunda, and 25 acres at a site on Schaefer.

Those are just the fields in Dearborn.

Outside of Dearborn, around metro Detroit there are more than 2,000 acres of Ford planted fields.