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Greenfinches

HouseSparrow
27/04/2014 00:50

Hi all,

A bit of an anecdotal story background required then my question - mainly to do with getting Greenfinches to hopefully stay in the area!

Typically Finches of any sorts do not visit my garden. A few days ago, I needed some bird food ASAP for the garden birds so purchased a cheap Gardman mix, which contained all the 'basic' (i.e. no premium) foodstuffs. This included black sunflower seeds.

However, a day or two later I acquired some Nyger seed (Niger?) and having not ever had this on offer before, immediately put some out.

The next day I noticed that some of the Nyger seed had gone - which I was pleased with!

The day after, I noticed that at-least two, maybe more Greenfinches had appeared.  I presumed this was due to the Nyger seeds.

However, having watched them more closely yesterday and today - the very 'odd' thing is that they do not seem to go to the Nyger seed and do not seem to go to the new seed mixes I have put out for the birds (which also have sunflower seeds) - they seem to stick to the ground, where most of the remaining 'basic' Gardman mix lies. 

As that mix is running out - and I would like for them to stay around, I was curious if I should go all out and exclusively purchase a new sunflower feeder and sunflower mix for them or if they may migrate to the other mix / seeds?

  • 0 27/04/2014 15:07 in reply to doggie

    Hi Alan,

    Thank you very much for the response.

    I must confess - I have heard a lot of Goldfinches and now Greenfinches nearby, though only ever see a few of the Greenies and never ever see any Chaffinches - though I think this could be due to not having an exclusive sunflower seed feeder.

    It would seem to me from reading others feeding habits and mixes, that I may be offering too much for a select species - Robins, Songbirds etc and nothing for any other species. I imagine going to sunflower seed, rather than purchasing 'songbird mixes' and 'robin food deluxe' may also save some money as well!

  • 0 27/04/2014 15:32 in reply to HouseSparrow

    Hi Housesparrow.  I have both a nyger seed feeder in my garden and a sunflower heart feeder and I have to say that I have never seen a greenfinch go onto the nyger feeder (that attracts goldfinch, siskin and lesser redpoll in the winter).  But they can't keep away from the sunflower hearts.

    If you get a fair few species in your garden you can't really go wrong with sunflower hearts (especially if you buy a feeder with perches on) as I also get house sparrows, blue tits, great tits, goldfinch, chaffinch, siskin, and even occasionally a robin eating the sunflower hearts (and collared doves, pigeons etc standing at the bottom for the seeds that get thrown out or spilt!)

    Let us know how you get on.

    See my Flickr photos here

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/115745582@N04/