UK - Feeding Finches (1 Viewer)

[humakt]

I am pleased to say that we get a very good variety of birds in our garden and in the Bird Buffet area at the top of the garden.
But we have trouble attracting finches.

The table and hangers are sheltered by a couple of spruce trees. There's often a chaffinch or two in the trees, and goldfinches in the nearby trees in other gardens. Had the rare greenfinch every so often as well. So there are finches in the area.
But we just don't seem to be able to attract a reasonable number or get them feeding.

Any recommendations for attracting finches? Should we give them their own feeding area? Best position for that? Best foods?
Any suggestions gratefully appreciated.

 

[Nutcracker]

What food are you providing, and how?

 

[humakt]

There's a main table that has a mixture of sunflower seeds, mixed bird seed, peanuts, and meal worm sprinkled on it.
Hanging from the table are a couple of suet blocks and a mixed bird seed feeder.
Adjacent to the table (a couple of feet away), attached to the garden fence, are another couple of suet blocks, and another seed feeder.
This is all under the shade and protection of a spruce tree.
We did have a peanut feeder up but it didn't receive much attention - some of the lower nuts had started to rot. So we stopped using it.
I think I may put that back up but not fill it so much.
Any ideas on what would be best for finches?

 

[d.steeley]

We get loads of Chaffinch, Goldfinch and quite a few Greenfinch. They all go for the feeders with sunflower hearts.

Dave

 

[humakt]

The actual sunflower hearts, not the entire seed?
The little sods too lazy to crack them open, eh?
OK, I'll give that a go.
Are sunflower seeds small enough to go in a regular seed feeder or do they need something special?

 

[kb57]

We have a clear plastic seed feeder with a bottom tray for sunflower hearts (which sadly they do prefer to the cheaper alternatives!) which attracts greenfinches, goldfinches and siskins as well as other species like blackbirds and tits. I'd recommend adding a niger feeder too though, as this attracts exclusively finches plus the odd house sparrow - greenfinches prefer the sunflowers, but we'll get goldfinches, siskins and redpolls on the niger.
There doesn't seem to be a problem about other species putting finches off - our feeders are hung in a hedgerow rather than being out in the open, which may help with arboreal species such as the redpolls and siskins, but is unlikely to make any difference with goldfinches.

 

[humakt]

We do have a bag of niger seeds which we also scatter on the table.

We have a spare seed feeder so I'll use that and rig up some kind of under plate to catch the spill.

What I'll do is make a mix of niger and sunflower and put that in the same feeder - the size and weight of the sunflower should be enough to hold the niger seed in the feeder without it all coming out.

OK, lovely - cheers.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

 

[Nutcracker]

What I'll do is make a mix of niger and sunflower and put that in the same feeder - the size and weight of the sunflower should be enough to hold the niger seed in the feeder without it all coming out.

Probably best to get separate feeders for them - birds which want one of the two will waste the other by tossing it aside as unwanted to get it out of the way (it may get picked up by ground-feeding birds after, but no guarantee of that).

 

[Kits]

My niger feeder attracts goldfinches, greenfinches and bullfinches. It is hanging in the same tree as my mixed seed, fat ball and peanut feeders. Chaffinches go for the mixed seed feeder, but prefer to ground feed.

 

[d.steeley]

Hi, I just use an ordinary seed feeder for the sunflower hearts (but in a squirrel proof cage). I used to feed sunflower seeds but got fed up with the mess of the dropped shells on the soil below. I sometimes put out niger seed in a niger seed feeder which is popular with the Goldfinch but only if there is no room on the sunflower hearts feeders. Most of the niger seed ends up on a ground feeder table below the feeder where is is mainly ignored by all the other birds. Have had Siskin and Redpoll in the past but none this year. When I use to use general birdseed the birds would only eat certain types and drop the rest which was eagerly hoovered up by the many Wood Pigeons. I don't get so many pigeons now since using hearts.

Dave

 

[humakt]

Well, what can I say!?

Half hour ago I put out a feeder with sunflower hearts in it and we've just had our first goldfinch visitor!
That was prompt.

 

[d.steeley]

Great result, hopefully word will spread and you will get lots more.

Dave

 

[aroundthebirdfeeder]

We're in California, so my experience may not be relevant, but I'll share just in case.

I have a pair of tube feeders hung approximately 4 feet apart. One contains a "no mess" blend which is primarily sunflower hearts with a few shelled peanuts and other grains mixed in. The other feeder is a metal mesh tube designed specifically for finches. That one is filled with a niger blend consisting mostly of niger. Both the Goldfinches and the House Finches far prefer the blend that is primarily sunflower hearts. In fact, they will almost always feed on the sunflower feeder first. Only when that feeder is fully occupied do they start moving over to the niger feeder.

My mother-in-law who lives across town recently hung up a finch feeder filled with niger and wasn't able to attract any birds after 2 weeks. I gave her one of my small feeders filled with the sunflower heart blend and she had finches feeding within a couple of days.

Best of luck!

Alan

 

[LesR]

I'm near Canterbury, Kent and the Goldfinches won't touch the niger feeder but love the sunflower hearts. I usually have at least 6 on the two sunflower feeders. I also put the sunflower hearts on the metal platform of the feeder and a couple of other old hanging baskets with earth in, these also attract a pair of nuthatch, blue tits, robin, chaffinch, coal tit, great tit, dunnock and house sparrow to mention a few.
If you look at suppliers online you can get 25kg of sunflower hearts for £26.00, with free delivery.

 

[aroundthebirdfeeder]

Well, what can I say!?

Half hour ago I put out a feeder with sunflower hearts in it and we've just had our first goldfinch visitor!
That was prompt.

Wow, that's awesome! So glad that worked for you...