![]() There are also lots of YouTube finch videos so you can always get your finch fix there too. So take heart if you are low on birds hope that this year’s Winter Finch Forecast is in your favor you’ll get tons of Pine Siskins. If you have oodles of finches at your feeder all day long that is most likely several flocks of birds that have your feeding station on their RADAR and include it in their daily route. ![]() Dirty feeders can spread disease.įinches travel around in large nomadic flocks. Remember birds don’t like eating off of dirty dishes any more than you do but will when they have fewer options. If your food is fresh and providing your feeder isn’t filthy dirty like the above feeder with all the goldfinches. ![]() But birds are booking south and some days you will have a ton and some days you’ll have very little. For most of my point counts I was lucky if I heard a distant American Crow or solitary Horned Lark. Then this week I did a survey and saw nary a bird. I’ll either be flying over thousands of Canvasbacks or standing in a cornfield surrounded by hoards of native sparrows or whirling flocks of Eastern Bluebirds and American Pipits. And the last few weeks have been chock full of birds. I’ve been doing three different fall bird surveys. But they are also a beefier finch and less likely to put up with shenanigans from other birds.Īnother reason you may not have finches is just plain old seasonal movement. I also find that birds like Purple Finches prefer it over Nyjer too. Even those tiny goldfinches will eat it along with other birds–note the American Goldfinch in photobombing the male and female Northern Cardinals? The separate feeder is nice because it gives the finches their own place to feed without being intimidated or bullied by larger birds. You know, if that is too much for you to think about, you can always just use sunflower seeds. You can get away with older sunflower but not that tiny finch seed. So it’s best that when you purcase Nyjer/Niger/Thistle that you always purchase small quantities and purchase often. That store wasn’t feeding him a line, it’s true. My DNR friend looked at me and said, “You’re kidding? I went to a wild bird store in my neighborhood and that’s exactly what they told me and I thought that was a scam because their finch seed was so much more expensive than the place I purchased it from!” That’s one of the reasons wild bird store seed tends to be more expensive (they are purchasing smaller quantities and purchasing the freshest seed possible). Most wild bird types stores like your Wild Birds Unlimited or Wild Birds Centers will work with their seed distributor to get the freshest crop, once that crop reaches a certain age, the distributor will sell it at a discount to places like hardware stores who would prefer to offer cheaper older seed than fresh seed. Once the seed is six months old after being picked, the finches are less likely to eat it. Most of it comes from Singapore, Ethiopia and Burma. Nyjer (also known as Niger and Thistle) is not grown in the US, though it is possible. I told him that the chances were good that the seed was most likely old and finches will not eat it. I asked where he purchased the food from and it was a well known “big box” store. We were talking about the high price of seed and that he purchased some finch food and the birds didn’t come. He’s a smart guy, a wildlife biologist and what he knows about native swans is incredible, but what he knew or didn’t know about bird feeding was surprising. I recently had a conversation with a colleague who works for the Department of Natural Resources. Some days you get bunches and bunches, other times you might feel totally rejected by them. When trying to attract finches, it can be feast or famine.
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