Hi, I have a bird table and various hangers and trays full of seeds, suet, dried fruit, scraps and cheese. I attract a variety of birds - jays, magpies, woodpigeons, doves, pheasants, blackcaps, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, blackbirds, robins, wagtails, grey wagtails but no finches of any discription? Could anyone suggest what food they like that might tempt them to the table? Many thanks :)
nyger seed - pretty much guaranteed to attract any finches nearby. you'll need a dedicated nyger feeer with tiny ports due to the size of the seed. the goldies, chaffinches & occasional green finch feed pretty much exclusively on nyger. the only other seed i've seen them take is sunflower
Patience is the answer!
I have been trying to attract finches as well.This winter for the first time I have 5 chaffinches.
I had 1 goldfinch last summer and 1 greenfinch a couple of years ago!
Just keep putting out food,especially sunflower hearts,most birds go for these.
It may be that you just don't have finches in your area.
You already have a good selection of birds in your garden,enjoy them and if you get finches as well that is a bonus.
Rachel
It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
Hi JL.
I put Niger seed in a feeder & Sunflower hearts in another feeder. Within 3-4 months I have Goldfinches coming. I get close on 16 that come daily.
Here is a pic for you.
If nothing goes right, go left! :-)
Hi there, and welcome to the forum.
I agree that nyjer seeds and sunflower hearts are a must if you want to attract most types of finch. Most finches like to be high up, and tend to gather in a nearby tree before coming down for food - so a tall tree nearby is essential in my opinion.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
JL.
Some more pics of my Goldfinches for you :-)
This is the first year we have had regular Goldfinches - sometimes 10 or so at a time. I tried Nyjer seed before, but all that did was end up growing in my lawn, but this year I have a feeder with Sunflower Hearts and they love it!! Today I even had my first Greenfinch and a Chaffinch, together with a beautiful Song Thrush - maybe the fact that there's snow all around and I have lots of food out has encouraged them in, but whatever it is, I'm happy :)
Thanks, I was trying to figure out how to insert the photos, rather than the links, but here they are as links, as I'm stuck :P (EDIT: Successfully added now, thanks to doggie)
I took the photos from the kitchen window, so they're a little fuzzy.
Another thing I was going to add, is that I've been searching about how to attract finches, and am thinking I'll plant some honeysuckle as they like the berries apparently!
Hi JL
I've been putting out both nyger and sunflowers hearts for almost a year now and I still only get one or two goldfinches. On the plus side though I get loads of redpolls and greenfinches and chaffinches wait underneath the feeders to clear up the spillage! The nyger is what got the redpolls into the garden (and my one or two goldfinch) but the sunflower hearts are the most popular overall and even the tiny redpolls are starting to develop a liking for them! Here's hoping you get a visit before too long.
See my Flickr photos here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115745582@N04/
I have dozens of goldfinches in the trees in my garden but can I get them on a feeder
Evening,
As suggested by others, niger is a sure way to attract finches. I have around 20-30 feeding together daily (chaffinch, siskins and mainly gold finches), only about 4 can fit on the niger feeder at one time. The majority eat sunflower hearts, especially throughout winter and early spring (due to the higher fat content I imagine). I have noticed they tend to prefer feeding at safe heights out of reach from cats etc, mine are around 8 foot high, they wouldn't touch them when they were around 6 foot (crazy I know!).
Once 1 finch finds the food source, it will tell it's buddies and you'll soon enough have a squad of them!
Hope this helps