It's a Great Time to Attract Goldfinches to Your Backyard

The American Goldfinches are very active in our area right now, in the midst of August.  Though they carry the reputation of being finicky eaters, you’ll have no problem finding a suitable offering that will please their palate. Goldfinches love to eat fresh, dry Nyjer® (thistle) and sunflower seeds.

Unlike many birds, goldfinches molt their body feathers twice a year: in the spring before breeding and after nesting in the fall. Females are a soft olive green and subdued yellow. Males sport vibrant, yellow coats with black wings, caps and tails during breeding season, but in the fall, they molt into duller colors that resemble the female.

The color of the legs, feet and bill of an American Goldfinch change with each feather molt. For breeding season, their legs, feet and bill are a buffy, yellow-orange color. During fall and winter, their legs, feet and bill are dark grayish-brown.

The spring molt requires a large amount of nutrients and energy which probably diminishes their ability to nest earlier in the season. In July and August, after the male has serenaded the female with canary-like songs, goldfinches begin to nest for the first and only time of the year.

Here are a few tips to remember when attracting finches:

• Buy your Nyjer from a reputable seed supplier that rotates their stock on a regular basis.  Nyjer can go bad on the shelf if it sits there for several months either by evaporation or oxidation of the seed oils.  Finches will know the difference and ignore old Nyjer.
• Keep food fresh and dry inside the feeder. Shake the feeder periodically to make sure that the food is not  clumpy -a big turn-off for finches, and use a Weather Guard to help protect your food from the elements. 
• Make sure the same batch of food does not stay in the feeder for more than three to four weeks.  Finches will not eat stale, wet or clumpy seed.  If in doubt, throw it out.
• If you notice that the finches haven't been coming for a while, remove all of the old seed from the feeder and then clean the feeder with soap and warm water and allow it to air dry in the sun. Once clean and dry, fill the feeder half way with fresh seed and keep an eye out for finches.  Sometimes they take a break from feeders due to no fault of your own.  Once they start coming back and consuming all the seed within a week, you can start filling the feeder to the top again.  If they don't come back within three weeks of filling, then discard the seed and try again with fresh sunflower chips or nyjer.
• Nyjer has a lot of protein and fat that is needed for growing their feathers. Be prepared for increased activity at your feeders in the spring and fall, when goldfinches are molting.
• Try our WBU Finch Blend if you have issues attracting finches with Nyjer.  We seem to get better performance with this blend that includes Nyjer and fine sunflower chips.  To find our Finch Blend at our online store, click here.
• Plain old sunflower chips (either course or fine)  work really well too!  Goldfinches just love sunflower seeds, but so do other birds.  One of the nice things about Nyjer and/or using a finch feeder is that it doesn't attract many other birds other than ones from the finch family (American Goldfinch, House Finch & Pine Sinskin), which helps lower competition at the feeder and increase the numbers of goldfinches visiting.  To see our options for finch feeders, click here.
• Once they've fledged, young goldfinches still depend on their parents for food. Watch for these juveniles at your feeders as they beg for food from their parents.
• Due to their almost exclusive diet of seeds, goldfinches drink frequently and will stay close to reliable sources of water during dry periods. Use a bird bath and keep the water clean and fresh.  For some odd reason, they especially like the water from our hummingbird feeder ant moats!

Visit us at our Glen Mills store  if you have any questions about attracting goldfinches to your yard.  We'd be happy to help!