I live in Northern Illinois and Gold Finches are fairly common around here. In the winter, they will flock around a thistle seed feeder and eat about 1-2 lbs of seed a day. In the summer, they are not so common around the feeder because they have natural sources of food.

Hi, I made the mistake of putting out niger seed out for the goldfinches this spring that I purchased last fall and overwintered (unopened). From what I have read the goldfinches seem to be very picky about this, and once they sampled, decided that they did not like it and have not returned. I have seen a few of them at the platform feeder dining on sunflower, but not at the tube feeder. After I found out that they do not like the old seed, I cleaned out the feeder and put in fresh seed that I just purchased. I just did this yesterday. My question is, will they return to the tube feeder now that the fresh seed is there, or have I lost them for this summer?

The goldfinches here love sock feeders filled with nyjer seed. I'm currently spending $1.09/lb for nyjer/thistle at a local garden store. I definitely spend more money on nyjer than any other food. If I don't hang the socks I won't see any goldfinches so, even though I'm pretty tight with my money, I buy what I have to. It would help a lot if all the house sparrows around here didn't eat from the socks as well. Not only do they eat the nyjer, but they also dump a lot of it on the ground.

Can you put screens on the vents so the goldfinches can't get in? I'm surprised the hot air coming from the vents doesn't keep them away. We have screens on our dryer vent to keep mice out