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Trying to attract Goldfinches (1 Viewer)

MK90

MK90

Always learning
The apple tree at the back of my garden is filled with feeders - peanuts, suet balls, mixed seed and home-made suet in a jar. I've recently added a Niger seed feeder in the hope of attracting Goldfinches. I've often seen them fly overhead and they occasionally visit my neighbors tree so i know they are around. However, after a week or so I've still not had any visit the feeder. I've tried moving it to various locations on the tree but to no avail.

Can someone advise me on how i can make this feeder more attractive to the Goldfinches or do i just need to be more patient?

Thanks!
 
If they're in the area like you say, then just be patient - they'll come.
I have lots around my rural garden, and at least one pair usually nests in it, but when I first put out nyger seed it was several weeks before they used the feeder. I think if there are other nyger seed feeders in the vicinity and hence you have 'experienced' birds in your area, it might happen quickly, but for me I think they were unfamiliar with the feeder as a source of food to begin with at least.

Mick
 
My feeders are less than 2m from the ground (at the top) and goldfinches happily use them. Not a statistically significant sample I'd agree!
 
We have goldfinches in the garden, but they now completely ignore the nyger seed in favour of sunflower hearts. They happily feed low down if sunflower seeds are there.
 
It took 7 years for me to get goldfinches in my garden. They are niger lovers here.
 
Thanks for all your replies. I think I'll give sunflower hearts a go too and then sit back and be patient. Hopefully it doesn't take seven years like it did for you kits.
 
Two weeks later and......we have a Goldfinch!! It's been visiting on and off all morning. Just the one but hopefully it's friends get the message and come too.
 
One problem I get especially with nyjer seed in feeders if the birds aren't visiting, is the seed going damp and mouldy in the feeders.
If you aren't getting visitors, then tap the feeders regularly or give them a shake to keep the seed circulating, and shake out the wet stuff at the feeding holes.
 
peter.jones said:
One problem I get especially with nyjer seed in feeders if the birds aren't visiting, is the seed going damp and mouldy in the feeders.
If you aren't getting visitors, then tap the feeders regularly or give them a shake to keep the seed circulating, and shake out the wet stuff at the feeding holes.
Click to expand...

This had been quite a big issue for us over the past two weeks with all this damp/mild weather. Hopefully, the Goldfinches can keep this under control now.
 
If the aspect of your garden is suitable plant lavender and lots of it. Leaving the heads uncut in the autumn will attract goldfinches, they value the small black lavender seeds.

Best wishes,
 
My goldfinches eat anything, well seed related in my garden. Nyjer seeds, mixed seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, they love all that, but having said that, I have had fewer in the garden this winter so far as compared to other years. I'm wondering whether the masses of chaffinches that are coming into the garden now are keeping them away or they have found a good food source elsewhere.
A previous poster mentioned lavender heads. If you want goldfinches in your garden in the late summer or autumn, then I suggest growing teasel. Not everyones cup of tea granted, as it seeds all over the place if not kept in check and you really need a large garden so you can create a dedicated teasel patch in it. Great for bees too.

Si.
 
My Niger feeders were up 2 years before Goldfinches finally arrived, then once the Redpolls/Siskins arrive (Oct-Dec), the Goldfinch numbers appear to plummet to just a couple, until the respective departures of the pollskins.
 
I had goldfinches this summer. I'm just using sunflower seeds in a squirrel buster and several window feeders, the goldfinches I'm in Massachusetts so mine are American Goldfinches, don't know if they have the same tastes as your goldfinches.
 
Yes... a thistle seed sock is good and fun... chickadees like them too... but sunflower kernels? they LOVE that stuff... they ALL do. Out my living room window is a red leaf tree, with a green river behind it... I love it when the goldfinches come to play in September and October - :)
 

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In the garden I have black sunflower seeds, white sunflower hearts, peanuts, fatballs and mixed birdseed - the goldfinch are only interested in the Nyjer feeder, which sits about head height, although they will take the seeds from the ground too (particularly younger ones). Which is a problem, as the seeds are so fine they easily drop out onto the ground, where they germinate if not "hoovered up".

I have a lot of resident sparrows, which go for everything, but this year in particular they have been going for the Nyjer quite a bit. About 2 miles from me, my friend gets no Goldfinches at all, despite having the Nyjer feeder out since last November. As well as our "mutual" birds, he gets woodpeckers and bullfinches, which I don't.
 
Not sure about goldfinches across the pond, but our American goldfinches can be SUPER finicky. They like nyjer thistle, but only if it's fresh, like no more than a couple weeks old. Otherwise they totally snub it! The best thing that attracts them to our area is planting lots of native wild sunflowers, thistles, rudbeckia and purple coneflower. I've learned not to deadhead the flowers and as a result goldfinches visit nearly all winter long.


Best,

Laura
 
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