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Finches in winter

14 years ago

Hello.

I have fallen in love with the winter birds. After 5 years, they still won't come.

I've spent thousands on landscaping; crabapples, small fruits, native shrubs, also lined the perimeter of the yard with evergreens.

We have a bird bath that I keep full and clean and we have it heated in the winter.

We have fresh black sunflower seed in a regular feeder and I toss nijer seed on the ground. We get maybe a few finches and juncos, nothing else.

I am going to put another heated bird bath near some shrubs as the one we have is on the deck railing...

If anyone has any more suggestions, I sure would appreciate them.

One thing I wonder about, my husband takes in the finch feeder in the winter, saying the finches don't come. He puts out the regular feeder with the black sunflowers.

After reading some of the posts here, I see some leave the finch feeder out. Should I put it back out??

Thank you for any help you can offer...!

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Comments (9)

donald lucius
14 years ago
the american golfinch and the lesser goldfinches leave here for the worst part of winter. but the house finches stay year around and the cassin's finches stay in the winter i keep nyger seed out year around and in winter its mostly the house finches and the pine siskins that love it. i also have a tube feeder with the small millet in it that the little birds feed on a lot. especially when it snowy. i noticed this week one of the juniper titmouse has been after the millet.
sissyz
Original Author
14 years ago
If I had a pine siskin or juniper titmouse at my feeder, I would jump for joy!
I will put my tube feeder back out and see how it goes..!
Thank you so much!
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MojaveLove
14 years ago
I still have my Nyjer feeder out. Up until a few days ago the Gold finches were still here, but they are not yellow in winter so don't look for that. I don't know if they've left after this snow we got. I have problems with bird populations too, there don't seem to be that many even though I am surrounded by fields, swamps and woods. I live in an area that was developed 5 years ago though, and I wonder if that contributed to bird population decline. Perhaps you have the same thing going on.
sissyz
Original Author
14 years ago
We live on what was soybean fields, developed 6 years ago. My feeder and bird bath this morning is swamped with finches and juncos, but none of the cute ones I see on some of the others' posts. No cardinals ever, no titmouse or wrens....
Zinnia1
14 years ago
Hi, sorry, a little late to the party. I just moved to CO and this is my first winter here, used to live in MI. In MI, I rarely saw a finch in the winter. Here is CO, I have a lot of finches (red right now but some were yellow in the fall). I also get titmice (titmouses?), chickadees, downy woodpeckers, and flickers on a daily basis.

Anyway, I have both black oilers in a tube and suet basket. The finches, titmice, and chickadees seem to like the suet. They eat both the seed and the suet, but the suet is what attracted them in the first place.
BennyBoyBird
14 years ago
I live in north Texas and we get lots of American Goldfinches in the winter here. I put my finch feeders out filled with fresh thistle week of Thanksgiving and leave it up until mid May. I often have 20-30 at a time on my two feeders!

Here is a link that might be useful: Ben Salisbury Photography
posieh
14 years ago
Purple Finches usually appear here in early Spring and then disappear during the Summer. This year they have been here most of the Winter. The gold Finches are abundant in the Summer. Again we are far North and have had an unusual warm Winter.
BennyBoyBird
14 years ago
HI everyone. I get this questions a lot so I made a new video about feeding American Goldfinches

Here is a link that might be useful: Feeding American Goldfinches
christie_sw_mo
14 years ago
Are you still there Sissyz? You can try throwing sunflower seed or safflower out on the ground especially on top of the snow or ice to attract birds. If you have Cardinals in your area, they prefer to feed off the ground rather than from a feeder. I often seen 10 or 12 at a time.

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