For years I had a tube feeder full of nyjer seed, but sparrows used it more than anything else. Only once in a while I would see a goldfinch eating from it. A month ago I replaced the tube feeder with a sock. There was an immediate increase in goldfinches, with up to a few of them on it several times the first week. After one week there was a big increase in goldfinches and it has not let up yet. There are almost always 1-4 goldfinches on the sock and several times, including today, there have been 8-12 fighting each other to get a space on the sock. They are such beatiful birds and it is great to see so many of them now. I hang the sock from my tree about 6 feet from the ground and so far I've never seen any squirrels messing with it.

Thank you all, Donna, you can have some of our lesser goldfinches, we have plenty of them :) They are noisey little guys. Years ago my mother told me I didn't have to feed them in the winter as they 'went somewhere else'. Well, they do. If you don't feed them they go to the neighbor who does. We just love them. On the orange House Finch, DH was insistant that's what it was but he was calling it a 'faded' House Finch :) And a question on the warbler. A warbler is more 'flitty' and more apt to be on the ground etc not holding still, right? Plus this guy was on the suet cake, not on the thistle sock. So I'll label him as a Yellow-rumped Warbler. We did get alot of blurry pix of him, REALLY blurry, but one did appear to show him with a pointed beak, not a 'finch' beak. Just couldn't really be sure. I'll still try for a better pic. Thank you so much!

Absolutely Lesser Goldfinch. By the way, I don't know how much time you spent looking at warbler pics, but you would have saved yourself that effort by noting the bill shape: warblers have much thinner bills. Bill shape and size is often a good clue to point you in the right direction; bright colour patterns you'll likely remember without trying, but the bill really needs to be looked at (unless we're talking about a toucan or spoonbill etc). Just a friendly hint. -O-

I'm sorry, I should have stated that I'm in MA. So it can't be a Lesser Goldfinch since they're on the west coat. I do thank you for trying though. TMFF you are usually spot on with bird ID's. Can you explain the brown back/shoulder area? And why the head appears green? My understanding is that yellow is pigment, while green means a mix with blue which is done through refraction (since there is no blue pigment in bird feathers). While you may be correct (you usually are) I just can't see the American Goldfinch in the colors of this bird? I have many American Goldfinches around here, but this does not look like them at all.