Gold Finches

cheffievrs · #1 (**permalink**) 11-08-2011, 09:56 PM

I am suffering from the green eyed monster, my next door neighbour has frequent visits from several gold finches daily, and yet i can't manage to get them in my garden.
I have a couple of niger seed feeders and sun flower seeds dotted around the garden but no look. I do get plenty of other birds though...
How do i entice these beauties in to my garden........????

Regards Jason

tigertom · #2 (**permalink**) 11-08-2011, 11:30 PM

I am sure they will start to come to your feeders soon they love niger and sun flower hearts I get them in the garden daily but at this time of year only two or three at a time but soon will start geting more and more I think what will happen with you is as more start to come to your neighbours they will start moveing on to your feeders as well, as I said I am only geting two or three at a time at moment but have had up to 18 on feeders at once and just as many feeding on spill on ground at same time, as they start to flock up for winter they will come you will see dont worry.

MIKE

actionfinch · #3 (**permalink**) 12-08-2011, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tigertom

I am sure they will start to come to your feeders soon they love niger and sun flower hearts I get them in the garden daily but at this time of year only two or three at a time but soon will start geting more and more I think what will happen with you is as more start to come to your neighbours they will start moveing on to your feeders as well, as I said I am only geting two or three at a time at moment but have had up to 18 on feeders at once and just as many feeding on spill on ground at same time, as they start to flock up for winter they will come you will see dont worry.

MIKE

i agree only so much room on the neighbours feeders...wait and see. i have 2 come to mine for about 3 days , but nothing , i have heard and seen them fly over the garden. they have food if they want it .
i see 3-5 at work on a daily baisis so that makes up for it..

cheffievrs · #4 (**permalink**) 12-08-2011, 11:20 PM

Ok, thanks for the comments, I hear and see them all the time in the trees between our gardens.....
I was watching five of them today, but not in my garden

Deb London · #5 (**permalink**) 13-08-2011, 05:31 AM

Hi,

If you post a picture of the feeders maybe we can suggest something to change. Otherwise, if you get them in the trees, I'd hang one on one of the branches on your side. I'm sure they won't be able to resist.

Good luck,

Deb

Muggsy · #6 (**permalink**) 13-08-2011, 07:20 AM

Funny this should come up, I have never seen as many goldfinches here as I have this year.

Without exageration, I have as many as 40 at a time feeding on the niger and sunflower hearts, its costing a fortune to keep them in seed

They started to arrive a few weeks ago and as numbers increased so too did the sparrowhawk attacks. The sprawks began to use my feeding station as the local takeaway.
Now I don't really object, but a strike every 30 minutes was just too much as the young sparrowhawks practised and perfected the art of hunting.

I would sit in the workshop 15 yards away and watch as feathers flew in all directions so I decided to slow them down a bit.

I took one of my old chick runs 4ft x 3ft x 3ft and placed it in front of the bush that contained the feeders. I lifted the lid and screwed it in the open position and put some perches in and hung the feeders inside the run, now the goldfinches are feeding inside the cage 30 and sometimes 40 at a time.

Thing is now, I might have to take the wire netting off and replace it with plastic netting or something softer anyway as the sprawks really bang into the cage when they attack.
Its quite a sight to witness the more experienced, older hawks negotiate the angles at the speed of light and I just have to applaud them when they take a bird from the 3ft space between the cage and the bush.

I love my job and where I live

KentYeti · #7 (**permalink**) 13-08-2011, 08:17 AM

I am sure they will come to your garden as well.

Postioning of the seeders has been mentioned and is important.

I was building up a reasonable collection of Goldfinches on their niger seed feeders that I had put away from the other feeders.

But the sparrows, of which I now have a lot, started bullying the Goldfinches off their seeder. Landing next to them on the seeder perches and pushing them off! Result was no more Goldfinches.

So I set up an extra seed feeder next to the niger seed feeders to give the sparrows something close by. And have slowly moved that over to the other side of the garden. Adding a small peching post for the sparrows to wait their turn on. I've got some more work to do to make some holes in an adjacent Leylandi bush so the sparrows can head for that when danger threatens, rather than back to the bush they have used near the niger seed feeder.

But so far so good. The Goldfinches are coming back now.

So check to make sure there is not that sort of impediment to Goldfinches using your garden. They are very small birds after all. But they do get used to you after a time and I can get quite close to my "regulars" now.

Cheers,

Bryan

roseway · #8 (**permalink**) 13-08-2011, 03:07 PM

Talking of getting close to them, it's quite enlightening to hide behind a bush where the goldfinches can't see you, and just listen. They constantly chirrup to one another as they feed. I'm not sure what the reason is, but I suspect it's in part at least a safety mechanism, keeping an eye out for danger and letting each other know about it.