Forum home Wildlife gardening
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

OMG... Goldfinches in my back garden

2

Posts

  • They are the most prolific birds in my garden after the house sparrows! And in mine, they only eat niger seeds and do not even touch anything else (I have sunflower seeds, but no niger seeds it is!). I usually have to fill my feeder (standard size) every 3 days for them. They are incredibly greedy! 
  • JellyfireJellyfire Posts: 1,139
    Think it must be a good year for them, theyre nesting in a jasmine arch in ours, we get them in the garden passing through usually on the teasels and suchlike but have never had a nest before 
  • Joyce21Joyce21 Posts: 15,489
    Have had a lot of them this year and it's the sunflower hearts they go for.
    SW Scotland
  • plant pauperplant pauper Posts: 6,904
    Mine are offered neither sunflowers nor niger but they flock here for the dandelions. I always leave a patch uncut.
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    I Freecycled my nyjer seed and feeder because nothing ate it.  I get goldfinches on my mixed feeder, and I'm hoping they'll appreciate the teasels I'm growing for the first time.  I wish someone would tell them that dandelion seeds are tasty and nutritious.  If only they'd read the books.
  • The Goldfinches used to go for the nyger seeds here too and teasel flower heads, now their favourite is the sunflower hearts.
    The peanuts are being ignored and the fat balls and coconut halves are being demolished rapidly by various other birds.
  • cornellycornelly Posts: 970
    Goldfinches take readily to our sunflower heart feeders, anything else in the feeder they chuck out, and ground feeders take it, including Chaffinches, who rarely use the feeders.
  • Daisy33Daisy33 Posts: 1,031
    No nyger in the new feed but lots of sunflower seed so maybe that's it. Also I have been adding peanuts. Don't see many finches here, so great excitement...we don't get out much. :|  :(
  • I usually have to fill my feeder (standard size) every 3 days for them. They are incredibly greedy! 
    Or they may be like ours who like to chuck food everywhere. I discovered this when we had the snow and there was a black halo under the nyger feeder.
    “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
  • Only spotted one at my feeders and never saw it again. Pity, I like seeing the small colourful ones in the garden. Maybe try a different seed when the poor weather sets in, see if I can entice one or two in over the winter.
Sign In or Register to comment.