Goldfinches

Stephanie M said:

I was so excited the other day because I seen a goldfinch on the tree in my garden. He never landed on my bird feeder so I decided to buy nyger seeds to attract him. He keeps appearing on my tree but never ever comes down to the feeder.  I get up to six greenfinches in my garden and about 12 chaffinches and my new nyger seeds have attracted siskins. However Ive not seen the goldfinch here for about a week now. Is there anything else I can do to try and attract him. All my friends keep laughing at me because Im obsessed with this goldfinche lol.

hi about 4 years ago i saw goldfinches flitting about and i had the same problem as you, they just wouldnt feed even though i bought their favourite foods. It wasnt until i grew some corn flowers that they decided to take an interest in what i had. i must admit they completely strip and demolish the cornflowers, but it has done the trick as i have 6 goldfinches who regularly feed on niger seeds and sunflower hearts. I saw 1 this morning with a feather in its mouth, so hopefully i might have a nest nearby soon.so that might be an idea, grow some cornflowers which are really cheap, then you can enjoy watching them as they spend absolutely ages picking the seeds out. cheers! leaffy

Thanks for your advice Leaffy, I just love Goldfinches they are beautiful birds.

I will speak to my dad and talk him into planting some cornflowers hehe.

Hi - I've got a Nyger feeder and it took a couple of weeks but saw 3 on it today! So worth the wait!!  Good luck

I bought a nyjer seed feeder, put it out and nothing came - this went on for weeks so in the end I took it down. As soon as I did that, I saw a Goldfinch in my garden! So I immediately put it back out and I now get between 2 and 8 visiting everyday like clockwork. They also love Sunflower Hearts and will eat those or the Nyjer. Give it time and they'll notice your feeders - I read somewhere that sometimes birds will have to suss out whether it is a trap or not before they'll be confident to use it. Although my Goldfinches are quite hardy little birds, they'll sit at feeders for ages, in all weathers! :)

As well as cornflowers, you could also try common knapweed (Centaurea nigra). 'My' goldfinches seem to really enjoy feeding on them and will usually choose them over the feeders. They also look so cute bobbing about on the stems as they pick out the seeds!

Stephanie M said:

I was so excited the other day because I seen a goldfinch on the tree in my garden. He never landed on my bird feeder so I decided to buy nyger seeds to attract him. He keeps appearing on my tree but never ever comes down to the feeder.  I get up to six greenfinches in my garden and about 12 chaffinches and my new nyger seeds have attracted siskins. However Ive not seen the goldfinch here for about a week now. Is there anything else I can do to try and attract him. All my friends keep laughing at me because Im obsessed with this goldfinche lol.

Hi Steph,

 

As well as Cornflowers you could try some sunflower hearts. I have had a Nyger seed feeder up for ages which was like you just not attracting them alone until I started with Sunflower hearts which all the birds love and frankly I think Goldfinches prefer. I have about 10 come at once in and out throughout the day. You will be buying 6 & 10 pole feeders sooner than you know it.

 

hi steph.

with reference to your lack of goldfinches,when we first put up a niger seed feeder,response was slow untill we put a sunflower seed feeder next to it possibly because a niger seed feeder has such small holes and it is hard to see its contents.once the finches knew the niger seeds were there,we were invaded by them,in fact next to starlings they are by far the most popular bird we see.goldfinches appear to be aggresive when in close proximity on a feeder,so decided to sprinkle some niger seeds on the lawn,and as you can see from picture they came from nowhere,18 was the most i could manage to photograph at any one time.