I have two feeders one with BOSS, the other has nyger seed. I had a flocks of chikadees and finches. They suddenly left, occasionally I will see a few of each come to the feeders, they peck a little then leave. My trees are full of birds. Should I empty the feeders, and add new seeds? I don't know exactly how I should clean the feeders, the seeds aren't old. We did have a few slight showers last week, is it possible they may be tainted? I have no idea. I would also love to attract the tiny little birds I see in the trees. I don't know what type of feeder or seed. They certainly are not hummers, I can't see them that close, they appear to be dark in color. Also I have some cardinals that cannot feed in my cage feeder, but I also have a huge grackle problem. How should I feed my cards? I live in South Texas. Thank You!

Marg, I've been doing this for a little less than a year, so take what I say with a grain of salt! :) First, maybe you could put nyjer in the finch feeder only. Then if the finches want it, they will go there. That's if you want to continue with the nyjer. If you keep nyjer in the tray feeder they have no incentive to try the finch feeder. I do feed differently in the summer; I worry more about keeping up with the birdbaths because the birds seem to use them more. They have so much more food available to them (bugs, plants, etc.) But I do put out a fruit and jelly feeder, a no-melt suet, and nyjer and BOSS, and sometimes sunflower hearts, raisins,and berries. I do keep more food out in winter. When it snows they always come here for some seed or suet. The birds do like garden flowers and seeds even better than the foods we put out though. I came home one day to drive up and see a ton of goldfinches all over our large butterfly bush. And they love the sunflowers of course, and the bugs in the vegetable garden. I hope this has somehow been helpful. Hang in there! :) And good for you for putting the plants in - I am doing that too, and it's more work but it will be worth it. bandgsmom - thanks for your reply. All I can say is, that's the way our finches divide up at the feeders. It's been true for almost a year now. And when I put a goldfinch feeder away from the other birdfeeders last summer, they really loved that.

Normally House Finches winter over in this area but for reasons known only to the birds, they all disappeared in early December and are just now starting to return. According to the state Audubon Society Purple Finches winter here but they are cyclical. About once every decade we see an over abundance of them, but generally they are rare and in some years totally absent. I went back and did some additional research on the House Finch. It appears that they are really a non-native species that were originally kept as cage birds. A small number of them were accidentally released on Long Island,N.Y. in 1940 and they first appeared here in Ohio in 1964. By 1980 they had spread across the entire state of Ohio and have established a very successful breeding ground here. What I found most interesting in my research is the fact that the railroads are attributed with the wide spread of both House Finches and the European House Sparrow. Both species were initially released in the New York area. Having been introduced into an urban habitat they were initially unfamiliar with the local flora and fauna, and therefore relied heavily upon man made food sources. It is believed that many initially found the most abundant sources of food near warehouses or food processing plants where grain or other foodstuffs gets spilled from railroad cars during the loading and unloading process. Some of the birds were inadvertently closed up in the railroad cars when the doors were closed and they were transported to distant cities before the cars were opened again. This accounts for why their is an abundance of these birds in urban areas while they are often considered rare in rural areas.

Yes, Purple Finches also don't have those brown streaked flanks that are present on House Finches. BN