niger seed

kiwi · #1 (**permalink**) 18-11-2007, 05:21 PM

apparently Niger seeds is supposed to attract goldfinches but in our garden its not attracting anything the birds just ignore the Niger seeds including the goldfinches anyone know why?

goosey · #2 (**permalink**) 18-11-2007, 05:27 PM

I had this problem as well when I tried it - It may have been just there are none in the area to attract

.

kiwi · #3 (**permalink**) 18-11-2007, 05:30 PM

but we do get goldfinches in our garden they just go to the other feeders with sunflower seeds in them

aeshna5 · #4 (**permalink**) 18-11-2007, 05:32 PM

In my garden they used it for a while then avoided it, taking sunflower hearts instead.

petermcgain · #5 (**permalink**) 18-11-2007, 05:52 PM

Our goldfinches go for the niger seed, as do the greenfinches if they can hold on. It sometimes takes the goldfinches a while to discover niger seed especially when there are alternatives - we saw a small flock on teasels the other day. Maybe when winter really arrives you'll be luckier.

trampas45 · #6 (**permalink**) 18-11-2007, 06:33 PM

I had the same problem so I got rid of the nyger feeder. They now come and feed off my sunflower feeder. They only started comming when the Burdock flowers started to die off. Next year I am going to plant more Burdock as well as some Teasels they prefer these to feeders.

kiwi · #7 (**permalink**) 19-11-2007, 02:48 PM

thanks everyone

rainmaker · #8 (**permalink**) 20-11-2007, 10:39 AM

Mines been out for about 2-3 months now - and I saw my first goldfinches today!

Patience young padowan!

Chrisg · #9 (**permalink**) 22-11-2007, 12:51 PM

Mine was 'found' within two hours of it going up. Now I seem to be supporting eight (at least) including a number of this year's young, I think they are great - really bicker with each other but what fantastic colouring.

What type of feeder do you use. Mine are like seed feeders but with tiny slits that only really goldfinches can cope with?

ChrisG

Purplepixii · #10 (**permalink**) 22-11-2007, 01:15 PM

Aha I'm glad I'm not the only person whose finches prefer sunflower hearts / mixed seed to their supposedly favourite niger seeds!

I've noticed my finches ignore the niger seeds when there's other food out but as soon as the other feeders are empty they're straight onto the niger seeds.

We've also recently invested in a 2nd feeder tower so we have niger seeds at one end of the garden and the other seeds at the other end of the garden - this also seems to help

Purplepixii