How to attract goldfinches? Surrey, UK (1 Viewer)

[Chaffy]

Hi

Have a good selection of bird visitors to my garden feeding stations. Regular visitors are robin, blackbird, great tits, blue tits, long-tailed tits, coal tits, one pair of chaffinches, nuthatch, dunnock, woodpecker, wood pidgeon.

However, in order to attract finches I have been putting out nijer seed for months - to no avail - not one taker! I know finches are in the area, and a lot of it is farmland. Is there anything else I could do?

 

[Watts]

Hi
However, in order to attract finches I have been putting out nijer seed for months - to no avail - not one taker! I know finches are in the area, and a lot of it is farmland. Is there anything else I could do?

Chaffy

Is the nyger seed in a feeder? In my garden the Goldfinches wil feed happily from the nyger seed feeder and from the ordinary seed feeders but seem relcutant to go to flat surfaces (ground or table) even when the same food is there.

If all else fails, grow a good stand of teasels this summer and see whether that brings in the Goldfinches to the seed heads over the winter.

Bill

 

[Marmot]

I have had nyjer and just the odd few had that, I also bought a teasel plant and then rued the day when it blew over leaving seed heads all over the lawn which sprouted into over 100 plants.

The Goldies that come into our garden love Sunflower hearts, in fact you cant go wrong with Sunflower hearts as all species eat them they are a good energy food and what falls out the feeders is eaten up by the ground feeders.

 

[ChickaD]

I agree 100 percent, can't go wrong with sunflower meats. I have several hanging tube feeders here, filled with sunflower. Gold finches, purple finches...had a red-bellied woodpecker hanging off the bottom other day while all the gold finches feasted above him, so cute to see.

 

[Chaffy]

I have nijer seed in a feeder. Also peanuts and sunflower hearts in other feeders - no sighting whatsover of a goldfinch near any of them! Could it be that the area we live in has enough natural food? - it is quite rural with fields and farmland, and pine woods.

 

[ChickaD]

We also live in a rural area, I have seen our goldies taking down the stem of dandelions to reach tops for seeds, also we have chickory, which produces a blueish daisy like small flower, that when it goes to seed, they also like them. One thing I can tell you with sunflower chips, when they get wet from rain, they clump together like cement and will be hard for the bird to break loose.

 

[dafi]

You could try ground feeding with sunflower hearts and blended peanuts.....this will atract every thing else but eventualy the goldies will come to see what everyone else if feeding on and as soon as they realise there is high protien food in a form they have no problems eating with their fine bills then they will be back again and again. If you mix blended peanuts with seed half a cup to a cup of seed you will keep the seed eaters happy. This will help the peanut mix to last longer as well.
Hope thats of intrest. good luck..

 

[Chaffy]

Thanks for that. I already do that - I have a peanut feeder, nijer feeder, seed feeder and make a mix of blended peanuts, nijer, crushed fat ball and sunflower hearts which I put onto the ground and a table feeder. You are right, the other birds love it!!!!!!

 

[RICHAT]

goldskins

Chaffy, It could be just down to luck with the goldfinches just not having sighted your feeders. I have been using a Droll Yankee yellow end painted nyger feeder for over 2 years now and have been inundated with goldfinches, which had previously feeding on conventional seed mixes in small numbers in late summer. Since Xmas, however, they have been outnumbered and even outmanouvered by siskins in common with recent reports on the news re. huge numbers of these equally attractive finches this winter. Rich

 

[barnstormer]

That's good news RICHAT cos i've just got my hands on one of those yankee droll yellow ended 20 perch nyger seed feeders and it's goin up in a day or so. Should i put it up on a pole on it's own or on a multi feeder with the other feeders ? .The starlings tend to bug the goldies when they hit the feeders at the same time.I wonder if the yellow ends attract the finches.I am struggling to attract much else,if i separate the goldie feeder from the others will this make much difference.

 

[RICHAT]

That's good news RICHAT cos i've just got my hands on one of those yankee droll yellow ended 20 perch nyger seed feeders and it's goin up in a day or so. Should i put it up on a pole on it's own or on a multi feeder with the other feeders ? .The starlings tend to bug the goldies when they hit the feeders at the same time.I wonder if the yellow ends attract the finches.I am struggling to attract much else,if i separate the goldie feeder from the others will this make much difference.

Hi Barnstormer, If you have a tree handy I'd recommend hanging it from there, which is what I do. If not then I would suggest you put it on a dedicated pole to minimise attention from collared doves and starlings. My DY yellow feeder is only a 3-perch model, but I think I should certainly have gone for the one you have. Incidentally mine has a spill tray fitted, but this fails to prevent a huge amount of spent seed being spilt onto the ground by these messy finches; house-trained they ain't! My friends' daughter has one of the jumbo feeders you have ordered and has had great results. I have posted a few photos of mine with birds on the sub-forum: equipment/cameras/olympus in an Olympus SP570 thread. I'm afraid I can't upload them here as I'm currently in hospital using their crummy computer! Good luck with the feeder, Rich

 

[barnstormer]

I am going for a pole and a seed tray tomorrow but you are right what you say about the tray as goldies are messy eaters.apparently the goldies are on the move and the numbers have dropped but there should be more along soon plus the next brood during the summer.Will let you know how it performs.I live in a new build house so the garden is bare at the minute ( just turfed ) and it's not the biggest of gardens but am planning on putting in a tree ( was thinking of a decent size holly tree ).any suggestions ?.

 

[RICHAT]

Trees

A fast growing tree to accommodate your huge feeder......now that's a challenge, and one for a bird gardening expert. The holly doesn't sound too user-friendly for the feeder. I'll let you know if I can find anything. You can buy good sized trees I know but they don't come cheap, and if they don't take well that would be bad. I'll let you know if I can find out some more. Rich

 

[RICHAT]

Gardening sub forum

Barnstormer, just seen there is 'gardening for birds' subforum under the same garden birds forum as this. There's a good thread there about buying cheap silver birches from supermarkets. They seem to favour silver birches (quick growing) and rowans for gardens. Hope this helps. Rich

 

[barnstormer]

Cheers rich,will check it out.

 

[CMB]

Do you have water set out? Goldfinches in our area seem to visit bird baths more than other small birds. We our baths go dry they tend to be less visible.

It has been my experience that Goldfinches will go off thistle from about mid summer, through winter, until mating season in the spring. Once spring hits the males flock to it again. I read somewhere that the ingredients in thistle help their feathers turn bright colors.

During the winter I can have a huge tube feeder of thistle and a large feeder with sunflower hearts right next to each other, and the Goldfinches will basically ignore the thistle and devour the sunflower.

 

[barnstormer]

I'd say it's been about 50-50 with the goldies hitting the 2 post sunflower hearts and the large nyjer seed feeder.the hearts are going down quicker but how many are getting dropped ?. I also have bluetit mix and crushed peanut in another two feeders and which they also hit on occasions.

 

[spookwoman]

We use both seed and peanut feeders in the garden and I have only seen the Goldfinches eat the peanuts. Max I've seen in the garden is at least 4 at the same time. Today we had 2 baby's feeding off the peanuts.

 

[jason hodges]

im sure in time goldfinches will come they allways do.as for trees my goldies do like the silver birch and also favour cherry and crab apple.

 

[Chaffy]

Well thanks for all your suggestions. The sunflower seeds seem to have done the trick - have FINALLY had goldfinches on my feeders, two of them! They have been visiting for the last 4 days. Also had a male and female bullfinch check in to see what all the fuss was about. Well chuffed!