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My Goldfinches are Left-Beaked.

14 years ago

I had been noticing for days that the goldfinches were always landing on the tube feeder pegs in the same orientation and were feeding to the left. That is until one very independent, feisty little lady felt she had to debunk my behavioral observations.

Gotta love individuality and those that fight the herd mentality...

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Comments (2)

plantgnome
14 years ago
For some reason-not getting as many goldfinches as I usually get. Same feeders as last year-same seed. Then of course there are the doves that sit in the mesh seed catcher like it was a hammock.
soilent_green
Original Author
14 years ago
Sorry to hear about the goldfinches. I do not know if it is related to the problem you are having but one time I had a similar situation and it turned out to be a batch of bad seed. Dumped out the seed, sanitized the feeder, replaced with fresh seed from a different supplier, and the birds came back.

Chickadees used to be a common, friendly sight here - I even had them eating sunflower seeds out of my outstretched hand - but I have not seen a single one in two years now. Very disheartening. I think there are some serious environmental issues going on that we are not aware of (or are not being made fully aware of) that are destroying bird populations or are reducing species' ranges.

Your dove story is funny...

My goldfinches still feed to the left at least 90% of the time. Quite a funny observation that still makes me chuckle when I watch the little critters feed.
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I have the same problem with a tube feeder filled with safflower. The chickadees and house finches will toss out several pieces before deciding on one while the cardinals will land, take one seed, and eat it. Much like you, I've yet to figure out what's going on. I was using the tray that came with the feeder but that allowed the mourning doves to perch and eat. They would clean out the feeder in a day. Now without the tray in place, I'm going 3 or 4 days between refills. The downside is the seed getting tossed to the ground, which the doves end up eating anyway. So I guess it's a trade-off.
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