Hi, Gary! Congrats on your goldfinches! My feeders remain empty, as the red-shouldered hawk has made my oak tree his current hangout. (Yesterday, he nailed a furry little creature in my driveway!)

Goldfinches are small, but if you look closely, you will see they have the perfect little beak for cracking seeds. It's heavy and conical, giving it a good deal of strength, much like a cardinal's beak. (Having handled many birds during my Audubon days, I can tell you that cardinals can BITE like a sonofagun!)

The goldfinches love black oiler sunflower seeds and thistle the best. If you see them hanging around for a bit, pick up a thistle sock (about $2 to $3 bucks) at your local PetSmart and hang it near your other feeder. They will cling to it all day long.

Congrats on the buntings, too. Oh, how I love those guys!

Marcia

Gary, could you send a few just a wee bit north? Goldfinches are probably my favorite little bird...only had a couple here this year...just passing thru, I guess. Saw a warbler (I think!) today...some sorta warbler..yellow, almost like a goldfinch...the white bands weren't perfect, tho...and a few darkisih feathers on the breast.

I ordered a new cam to get a pic of these lil oily sunflower seed monsters I have here. Maybe they are the same. Always in bunches, tiny and make a mess ONLY in the sunflower seeds. I cant see how they could be eating them as fast as they scatter em, but maybe they are!

Watch em not be here anymore once the cam comes!

Hey Tony! Tip~~~Get the finch mix feed, it had sunflower chips in it~~~less mess!
Kat

Thanks Kat, I will look into gettin some perhaps later today. I want to keep these birds here a while even though they are slobs.

Marcia thanks for posting the idea on the thistle sock, I will try it.

got the sock and seeds! Man a fella can go BROKE trying to attract and maintain birds in his yard ya know it?

Should this sock be under something to prevent it from getting wet?

Looking forward to a BUNCH of birds in the morning hours.

Thanks for the suggestions Marcia, I'll pass on the thistle though, I had some for a while a couple years ago, but would end up with some germinating in my yard, not a desirable plant (at least I assume the thistle coming up was from my feeder). Beth, I told them to go up north, but they just looked at me funny and went back to eating! They actually came back today too! I agree with Tony that they make a huge mess. My chickens clean up underneath though whenever they bust out of their fenced area. One male goldfinch has nicer bright colors, but he's still not up to his summer plumage standards though. Today was extremely busy in the back yard, cardinals, buntings, catbirds, doves, goldfinches, red bellies, a hawk (scared everything away), pine warblers and others. I miss my yellow rumped warblers which were here last winter. I see a few, but not the decent group I had last.

Happy birding,

Gary

Still seeing goldfinches, since the sunflower feeder was empty they were desperate enough to eat from the regular feeder. I refilled their sunflower feeder so they won't get mad and poop on my car.

Gary

Hey Gary, I think the Niger seed is heat-treat to prevent germination, I haven't had any problems with my finch blend.
Kat

I have never had thistle seed sprout from a thistle sock feeder, either. That's the kind I usually get. But if it did sprout, I'd just mow it down along with any other sprouts under the feeder. I can't worry much about stuff like that, myself, because I want the birds more. If some sprouting seeds are the price I pay, so be it. Neatness isn't a big issue for me, anyway, inside or out! Got too much else to do with my days than to worry about things being all clean and perfect. Of course, being married to "Oscar Madison" long ago wiped out any traces of neatness in me, I guess.

Anyway, Gary, the thistle socks have never sprouted for me, and they don't leave tons of seed shells on the ground. I find them very useful for the goldfinches.

Marcia

If you see my property, you'd find neatness isn't an issue here, but thistle is spiny, so I don't want any more than I already have popping up here and there. I have a half acre of natural meadow which I allow reseeding, including big shrubs (when in a spot I approve) like poke. Another half acre I didn't clear at all, and is palmetto, wiregrass, longleaf pine. I have dozens of shrubs and trees I researched and chose to provide food for birds and pollinating insects. Once you allow something you don't want to reseed, the pandoras box is open. I have lots of open spots where seeds can germinate. The main point would be if the thistle from those feeders won't germinate, I'd be interested. I'll research it some myself, but that sounds good. I just know I had a thistle feeder a few years ago, and since I've had thistle popping up here and there. Perhaps coincidence.

Gary

Here is info on the nyger seed I posted before. I have no affiliation with this company and don't know if other companies do this also.
Kat

A special treat for Finches! Thistle
(Nyjer®) Select is specially designed to attract American Goldfinches and other beautiful finches to your yard. This premium seed product will bring flocks of colorful birds to your backyard. Thistle Select is heat-treated to prevent germination underneath feeders.

Thanks Kat! What other birds hit your thistle feeders?

Gary

Sorry Gary, didn't notice the question until now. I have seen the painted buntings and the cardinals make an occaisional stop at the nyjer feeder, but they prefer the sunflower chips. (I spoil them so!) I still have 30+ goldfinches, the males are getting absolutely beautiful. Too bad I can't get a decent picture of them. They come to the feeders by the window with the roll-up shade. They can't see us so we can get right up to the window to see them but I can't take a photo. Hope yours are still hanging around!
Kat

I had a thistle sock but didn't like it because the seed seemed to fall out too easily (maybe I needed a different brand of sock?).

Anyway, I much prefer the tube type thistle feeder that has the seed slots BELOW the perch. The little guys (and gals) hang upside down from the perch (and they don't seem to mind it a bit) to extract one seed at a time. Some seed may occasionally fall to the ground but not the way the thistle sock voluntarily dispenses it.

I am in no way connected with the company linked below. I just wanted to add a picture of the type of feeder I'm referring to. That feeder is shown on the left side of the link (you can see the birds hanging upside down).

June

Here is a link that might be useful: Tube type thisle feeder

Hi, June. I've never had much seed loss from the socks, oddly enough. They really are so cheap and easy to keep during our brief goldfinch season that I almost always use them. I've gone through three of them this spring, but now I'm down to just two goldfinches and they are feeding mostly on sunflower seed at the tray feeder.

I do have one screened in thistle seed feeder, but the birds didn't seem to like it as much as the sock. I've thought about getting one like you linked to, but never bothered with the extra expense, since the goldfinches are only here for 3 or 4 weeks before heading back north. They come through in the fall, too, but not for as long.

No matter which style feeder used, they do LOVE those thistle seeds, and it is so worth putting out for them. I had males this year completely colored up, solid brilliant yellow with black wings and cap, by the time they left. They were breathtaking.

(Not my photo, btw)

One thing, though...I didn't see a single bunting this year. Last year, I had indigos almost every day, and two painted buntings for about a week or 10 days. I also had a rose-breasted grosbeak one day, and a blue grosbeak once. So far, none of them has shown up this year, sniff!

My catbird is still here and still eating seeds, but the myrtle warbler has finally figured out that he isn't supposed to be a seed eater and has gone off to find the rest of his flock.

The garden is so much the richer for these wonderful creatures I share it with. They make my heart happy, and I hope to find more and more plants and flowers that will help bring them in.

Marcia

Wow, over 30 is amazing. We still get about a dozen and a half. Its amazing how quick they empty my feeders. Its taken five years to get to this point, but its real nice. We see more birds staying home than we do going to any state park. Its funny seeing the birds in the waiting area (red maple) for their turn at the feeder. Morning around 8 or 8:30 seems like prime time. We have at least 4 catbirds, several pairs of cardinals, bluejays, mockingbirds, 2 or more dozen doves, up to 2 male and 3 female painted buntings, pine warblers, brown headed cowbirds (bad bird but good singing), 3 or more red bellies, about a half dozen chipping sparrows. We get purple martins visiting, but don't want to seem to live in our gourds. Our feeder which sticks to our front windows seems very popular. It provides a great view of feeding birds. I'm glad you're all enjoying your visiting winter friends!

Gary

It's April 13 and I still have a small group of goldfinches at my feeders. The lone male is in full breeding plumage and the females are coloring up nicely, too. At its peak, the flock was about 25-30 finches. There has been one female painted bunting among them, and she still remains, as well. Last year there was a painted bunting pair, but no sign of the male this year. I expect they will leave soon, as the chipping sparrows pulled out two weeks ago.

I have kept one tube full of niger seed, one full of millet, and one with a mixed finch seed all winter, and have been rewarded with singing trees since early January.

These birds do not seem affected at all by the red-shouldered hawks' nest in the top of the live oak, only 80' away (and 60' up). Squirrel numbers, however, are down.

Anyone ever have to deal with the Spanish moss brought in by nesting hawks? Is hand removal the only way to go?

Diane

Becareful if you remove that Spanish moss by hand, it often contains ants that bite.