I would suggest using whole peanuts and an upside down thistle feeder. House finches wont eat whole peanuts, but birds like woodpeckers, jays, and nuthatches will. You can offer these on a tray or platform feeder, or you can simply scatter some on a table or fencepost. Upside down thistle feeders are designed specially for goldfiches and chickadees because they can feed hanging upside down whereas house finches cant. Just be mindful that thistle seed will cost you a bit more than other seeds.

what's wrong with feeding house finches? Why not set up a feeder just for the finches and use other feeders designed for a variety of birds as suggested above? Now House *Sparrows* I would understand, but why not house finches?

House Finches are a non-native, invasive species outside of the US southwest. Having been foolishly introduced to the northeast, they have since spread nationwide, displacing native finches and sparrows:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_finch

They mob my feeder and take up all the perches. Not only are they messy eaters, they plant themselves and sit there taking up space whether eating or not. Polite native birds that fly in to take a seed and fly off, like Chickadees and Titmice, don't have a chance, until/unless a Red-Bellied Woodpecker lands and scares the House Finch mob away. These gluttonous, noisy and impolite House Finches are costing me a fortune in bird seed, moreover they spread conjunctivitis.

I read that a screen feeder helps with the House Finch problem, as they are supposedly perching birds that won't cling to the side of a screen. I bought a tubular screen birdfeeder of a size to hold my usual black sunflower seeds. Hope it helps.

This news about House Finches is incredible. I thought I knew a lot about my feeder birds but I truly forgot that HFs are so menacing. Sure is good to go through these older posts to learn new things. I had so many HFs this summer and it never occured to me they were the reason I had not much else. Thank you so much, hokle and other commenter above.

Do you now if House Finches like SAFflower seed?

I think they like everything

I want to bump this post up. Has anyone come up with a successful way to discourage House Finches? hokle? creek? linda? Did the screen-only tube work?

Bump

I just tied safflower. They can crack them open easily, which surprised me. I used to use it to get rid of grackles in GA because grackles can't eat it. I think the house finches were laughing at me. Sigh.

me too.

I’m reareally shockshocked at this post. Love my house finch! they they’re very friendly have a beautiful song, but most importantly they will keep house sparrows in check.

4 weeks ago I was getting a good variety of birds to my platform feeder and I though the Carolina wren was pesty then the house finches showed up. Cardinals can chase them off when they’re feeding but nuthatches, blackcapped chickades, titmouse, blubirds, really have a problem with these aggressive feeders.

House finches suck. If you don't think so fine but obviously lots of other people think so and that's the point here. If you love HF's don't waste space on this string by trying to convince others to change their mind!