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Goldfinches in Liverpool (1 Viewer)

Are there really any Goldfinches in Merseyside?

Since the spring I have been making efforts to attract local wild birds to my garden. So far I have been very successful attracting all local species except Goldfinches.

I have the Nijer seed they like in feeders. I have planted several Teasels in the garden. I've also read that adding some yellow colour to the feeders helps attract them, so I tried that too. But nothing.

Now I'm really skeptical that there are any Goldfinches in the area at all.

I'm interested to know what you guys think.
 
I often see small flocks of them in all seasons around Albert Dock where I work, I'm sure they must breed locally. I see them less often in my garden in Bromborough, though they're around in ones and twos from time to time. I find they're pretty common in areas with scrubby waste ground.

Where abouts are you, and how's your luck been with other finches?

Cheers
Paul
 
I live in East Lancashire and I get lots of them on my feeders, they seem to like sunflower hearts best of all so I would try some of them.
 
Thanks for your replies all. Really interesting stuff.

I've got sunflower hearts for the Robins and they really like them. Now I'll make sure there's always some out there.

But I've still not seen a single Goldfinch. I thought I saw one on the fence recently, eyeing up the Teasel flowers, but it was gone before I could get a proper look at it. I think it was a juvenile, virtually all light gray with no other colours around it's face/head.

I'm in Knowsley, less than a mile away from the Safari Park.

On another topic, when I first started we had virtually no Tits in the garden. Now we get lots of them, some days a lot more than Sparrows. But there are some small Tits that look like Blue Tits, but they do not have the blue cap, it's always much darker and doesn't look very blue at all. I don't think I've seen a single Tit with a blue cap. So are these really Blue Tits (juvenile or otherwise), or are they different Tits?

Thanks for your help all. Very interesting stuff.
 
Thanks for your replies all. Really interesting stuff.

I've got sunflower hearts for the Robins and they really like them. Now I'll make sure there's always some out there.

But I've still not seen a single Goldfinch. I thought I saw one on the fence recently, eyeing up the Teasel flowers, but it was gone before I could get a proper look at it. I think it was a juvenile, virtually all light gray with no other colours around it's face/head.

I'm in Knowsley, less than a mile away from the Safari Park.

On another topic, when I first started we had virtually no Tits in the garden. Now we get lots of them, some days a lot more than Sparrows. But there are some small Tits that look like Blue Tits, but they do not have the blue cap, it's always much darker and doesn't look very blue at all. I don't think I've seen a single Tit with a blue cap. So are these really Blue Tits (juvenile or otherwise), or are they different Tits?

Thanks for your help all. Very interesting stuff.

Keep on with the teasels- the goldfinches love them, and they self-seed very readily (too readily sometimes) Agree with the sunflower hearts too, always get a good variety of finches on my feeders with these. Are the smaller tits coal tits by the way??
 
The Goldfinches have landed. I was originally using a homemade Niger feeder, and a pretty good one even if I do say so myself, but it seems the Goldfinches were not impressed as I bought a new metal one from wilko and now they're here every day. Which is great to see. There are a lot of males, not many females though. I originally placed the new nijer feeder in an apple tree away from the house and the Goldfinches turned up a day or two later. We've since moved it close to the house with the other feeders to get a closer look and they're happy to join the other birds.

Also surprised to get a visit from a Long tail tit a couple of days ago, super cute little things.

And yesterday had a visit from a large bird I've never seen before. A seagull sized bird, mostly black I think with a yellow-tipped beak. Never seen anything like it. o:D
 
Keep on with the teasels- the goldfinches love them, and they self-seed very readily (too readily sometimes) Agree with the sunflower hearts too, always get a good variety of finches on my feeders with these. Are the smaller tits coal tits by the way??

We do get a lot of coal tits but I think the little ones were juvenile bluetits as now we only see ones with blue caps.
 
I often see small flocks of them in all seasons around Albert Dock where I work, I'm sure they must breed locally. I see them less often in my garden in Bromborough, though they're around in ones and twos from time to time. I find they're pretty common in areas with scrubby waste ground.

Where abouts are you, and how's your luck been with other finches?

Cheers
Paul

Can't say I've seen any other finches to be honest, there may have been.
 
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