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Chaffinches on feeders? (2 Viewers)

david2004

Well-known member
It seems to be known that Chaffinches are generally ground feeders. At my home they only feed on the ground, and occasionally the bird table.

But when I went to Minsmere on Saturday, the feeders behind the visitors centre were covered in Chaffinches, and I even have a few pictures I'm about to have developed. I even found a pic online.

Are Chaffinches really ground feeders, or will they generally feed on feeders as well?
 

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At my previous house, the chaffinches only ever seemed to feed at the feeders. At my present abode, they are still ground feeders.
 
I reckon most species will adapt pretty quickly to use a readily available source of food. Our garden Robins will hover close to hanging food and peck at it when you might expect only tits and the like to use it. Chaffinches might prefer one method of feeding but aren't about to turn down a fast food joint like that one. Chaffinches are regular visitors to food in my garden whether it is on the ground, in tubes or on the table but we usually have more on the ground than anywhere else. As it happens on the few occasions Brambling has visited garden food the birds have always fed on the ground.
 
tp20uk said:
It seems to be known that Chaffinches are generally ground feeders. At my home they only feed on the ground, and occasionally the bird table.

But when I went to Minsmere on Saturday, the feeders behind the visitors centre were covered in Chaffinches, and I even have a few pictures I'm about to have developed. I even found a pic online.

Are Chaffinches really ground feeders, or will they generally feed on feeders as well?

I have 6 perch feeders that I fill with sunflower seeds and the Chaffinches use all 6 perches and there is usually a line of 3 or 4 on the fence waiting!

I have to fill up daily,and there are usually some more on the ground mopping up what has been dropped from the feeders.
 
We have feeders + tables, and our finches & house sparrows seem happy to use these and feed on the lawn picking up the spillage i think its a case of were the food is take it!
bert.
 
Interesting - my chaffinches wont go anywhere but the ground! house sparrows will go on feeders, but they have all but disappeared for some reason!
 
helenol said:
At my previous house, the chaffinches only ever seemed to feed at the feeders. At my present abode, they are still ground feeders.
Well, they've made a liar out of me again. Saw the first chaffinch on the feeder today!
 
Hi Elizabeth. I have plenty of chaffinches already here in the garden, in fact, there a loads of them. It's just that until today, they had never perched on the feeder. Although the greenfinches have already claimed their perches on the feeders.
 
greenfinches take up the feeders here too - blue tits grab something and fly off. greenfinches stay until another one chases it off! no other birds can get a chance! lucky i have 8 feeders i suppose.
 
Jackdaws hang on my peanut feeders. I recently changed from a red plastic one to a red wire one, because they were monopolising it and emptying it twice a day. The wire one lasts a couple of days now, and its mainly house sparrows that use that one. Chaffinches hover at my sunflower hearts feeders which are clear plastic hexagonal ones (from the garden centre) and they grab a seed and fly off. I haven't actually seen any perched on the other types of feeders.
 
Oddly my bit of Faversham seems to have next to no Chaffinches, and thinking about it I've only seen one around the town in the last couple of years. Greenfinches are plentiful, and Linnets and Goldfinches common enough but no Chaffinches...
 
As a sidenote, yesterday I noticed two greenfinches on the peanut feeder. I don´t usually provide peanuts, but have done of late. The feeder is situated on a wall, and the greenfinches were happily tucking in.
 
Greenfinches seem to love the peanuts in our garden, they are always at the feeders and hardly give the other birds a chance. The blue-tits either grab a seed and fly off or they get the seed and put it in their feet and start to peck it, has anyone else noticed this?

P.S. We had a party off 20 long-tailed tits fly through the garden twice today. But none stopped to feed unfortunatley.
 
I have observed the chaffinches in my garden feeding from the seed tray on the bottom of the seed feeder - sunflower hearts inside, mind you! At Dodd Wood observation point (Ospreys at Bassenthwaite) this summer I observed chaffinches hanging on the feeders and I also saw bullfinches on bird tables and feeders at Upton Warren a few weeks ago - they learn fast!
Mike
 
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