Yes, the upside down feeders are used by our goldfinches all the time and the house sparrows don't go near it. There is the occasional chickadee but that's about it.
They're great, I highly recommend them!

chickadee, that's great to hear. Which feeder do you have and from where did you buy it?

Hi, I have the feeder made by Perky Pet, with a yellow cap on the top, about $13 at Lowes or Home Depot.

Good luck!

I just picked one up at Home Depot for $8.50. I had a tube feeder several years ago that was not used a ton by goldfinches(they instantly loved the socks when I began hanging them, though), but I'll give this one a try.

I have a mesh thistle feeder and an upside down tube feeder, the goldfinches seem to prefer the upside down one, but that could be because in that one I use mix of thistle and crushed sunflower hearts...I think they really enjoy the sunflower hearts. But, even the recently fledged birds from this summer readily use the upside down feeder. When you watch them feeding on hanging sunflower heads to get the seeds, you can see why it is so easy for them to feed from feeders with ports below the perches. Fun to watch.

BN

I've had a bit of action on my upside-down feeder so far. I saw a total of four on it yesterday. I saw seven goldfinches in my yard this morning and two of them tried the new feeder. One of the two appeared very comfortable and one struggled to hang. An adult male brought his youngsters to feed, but they just perched on the tree next to the feeder. The sock feeder is still preferred, but hopefully they'll get used to the new feeder and enjoy the lack of hosp/hofi harrassment.

I seem to be getting about equal goldfinch action on my sock feeder and upside down feeder. The chickadees use it quite a bit, too, although they can only briefly hang from the perches.

I have noticed one problem with the feeder. The goldfinch juveniles appear unable to hang from the perches. They have been trying the last couple days, but fall off their perch immediately. I guess that means I'll have to keep providing one sock feeder, which the juveniles can easily use.

I've seen a few goldfinches, even adult males, struggle to hang from the perky-pet perches. The perches are somewhat thick and the goldfinches don't appear very able to wrap their feet all the way around them. In an attempt to rectify this problem I got a couple sticks and carved some thinner perches(perky-pets are 6mm diameter, new ones are 4-5mm). So far it appears to be easier for the chickadees to hang and eat and the two or so goldies I've seen haven't had any trouble. I hope the goldies that have struggled with the perky-pet perches come back to try the new ones.

How clever to make your own perches! - Maybe I'll try that too.
I have some small diameter dowels I can use.

The goldfinches here don't seem to have a problem with the current perches, but who knows, maybe if I do what you did I will see even more birds!

Thanks for the idea.

Stick with the Perky Pet feeder without modification. Changing the perches will encourage other birds. Also, if you only want goldfinches do not use a mix of seeds in your feeder. It is true that goldfinches love fine hulled sunflower chips, but so do a lot of other birds. Birds that are big enough to sit on one perch and reach around and eat from the next higher feeding port. And then the feeder you bought to eliminate the goldfinches competition, is now feeding a variety of large birds.

I hear you, china, but so far the thinner perches are working well. I still have the perky-pet perches and I could put them back in any time, but I was seeing too many goldfinches struggle to hang and leave without eating. Since I added the new perches I've seen a handful of house finches and sparrows try the feeder, but none have come close to getting any nyjer.

Bad news... I just saw a house sparrow successfully and comfortably cling to the new perch and eat nyjer seed. It just leaned forward until it could reach the port. I just bought a wooden dowel to carve better perches, but I'll have to make them slightly thicker... something between the perky-pet and my carved perches.

You must have some persistant HOSPs and HF. I've never had either bother any of my nyjer feeders. I've actively controlled the HOSPs this year, so they were no problem. Doing so led to a bumper crop of HF, which were content with BOSS or Safflower feeders. Come to think of it the Chickadees don't bother it either, only GF and PS use the nyjer feeders. They too generally prefer the socks. GFs have also started feeding on the black-eyed Susans seeds in the yard. I planted sunflowers for them this year and they must not be ready yet, since they haven't been touched yet.

More bad news... A house finch just successfully ate from the feeder as well, and once the sock feeder at the back corner of the yard was empty the house sparrows moved to the upside down feeder to bully away the goldfinches. A couple of them easily hung from the perches to eat nyjer. On top of that, there isn't as much difference in size between the perky-pet perches and my carved perches as I thought. I may have to put the perky-pet ones back in. Of course, then some of the goldfinches, especially the young ones, won't be able to use it again. I really wish I could snap my fingers and make the pest birds disappear.