![]() Seed-Bearing Plants Attract Finchesįlowers in bloom and plants going to seed attract finches to your yard. Image by Claude feuillebois from Pixabay 6. Clean feeders keep birds healthy and attract foraging finches. Adding a weather guard to your feeder can prevent the seeds from getting wet and clumping. When it rains, seed can also become clumpy, and the birds won't be able to pull seeds out of the feeder. Finches Need Clean Feedersįinches don't like dirty feeders and will avoid a feeder if it's moldy or otherwise unclean. You can also use colorful and flowering plant species in your garden so birds on the fly can spot your finch-friendly backyard from the sky. Adding something like a colorful ribbon can help attract finches, as the movement in the wind can make them feel like another bird has already explored the new feeder and found it to be safe. Add Brightly Colored Ribbons & Plantsīirds have an extremely developed sensitivity to color and are attracted to bright colors not commonly found in nature. They frequently visit feeders with new thistle and often ignore those with old, dried-out seeds. Finches can actually tell the difference. ![]() If oil doesn't come out when you pinch a seed with your fingernail, it's not fresh, and the finches won't enjoy it. It's a good idea to buy thistle on an as-needed basis purchase a seed quantity that the birds in your yard will consume within a month or so. ![]() This helps preserve the seed, preventing it from drying out until it goes into your finch feeders. Thistle seed (aka Nyjer ®) dries out quickly, so store your fresh thistle in the freezer until you're ready to use it. Finches won't feed on brown, old-looking seed. Make sure to buy seed that has a strong black color. Temporarily removing other feeders in the area encourages birds to forage outside of their usual routine and can help them find the new feeder. Oddly enough, filling a new feeder half-full seems to attract birds to the feeder. There's something new in the yard they aren't used to, and they need to warm up to it first. Temporarily Remove Other Feedersīirds are creatures of habit, and sometimes it can take them days or even weeks to use a new feeder. Once they have discovered it, you can move it far enough away from shrubs and trees so the squirrels can't jump to it. Placing the feeder near a shrub or tree will make the finches feel safe and can also encourage them to explore the new feeder. Place Feeders Where Finches Feel SafeĪ feeder out in the open can make finches feel vulnerable to predators. These eight hints for how to attract finches will help you create a finch-friendly backyard bird feeding station they can't resist! 1. Sorry to be long-winded.Finches can be finicky and are sometimes hesitant to visit bird feeders. If I went with a straight nyjer feed that only attracted golfinches, the tube feeder might be the better choice based on ease of maintenance and protecting the seed better. The fact that I use a nyjer / sunflower chip blend that atracts the Downies as well as the goldfinches would have me favor the mesh feeder. ![]() This also helps to get the seed poking out through the mess so the goldfinches and Downies have an easier time feeding. After a rain, I'll shake the mesh feeder to loosen up the wet seed and break up any clumps. I'll see maybe two or three at a time on the mesh feeder, as long as the Downies aren't feeding. I had eight-hole tube feeders so as long as the sparrows and house finches weren't chasing them away, the goldfinches would be plentiful on the tube feeders. They're very entertaining to watch as they circle around the mesh feeder picking out the sunflower chips.Īs for the goldfinches, I haven't noticed much of a difference between their visits to the mesh feeder compared to the tube feeder. However, the Downy woodpeckers really like the metal mesh feeder and have a much easier time feeding from it than they did from the tube feeders with the perches. The sparrows and house finches don't seem to like having to cling to the metal mesh so they don't visit the mesh feeder as much as they did the tube feeders. Based on the activities in my yard, the sparrows and house finches preferred the tube feeders and would chase away the goldfinches. I tend to use a blend of nyjer and small sunflower chips, which is why the squirrels went after the tube feeders. I had two tube feeders that were destroyed by squirrels (thank you, WBU, for your lifetime quarantee) and am now using a metal mesh feeder.
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