I want finches!!!!!

Twister Ella

I have an apparent absence of finches in my garden and I'd like some!!

I've nyger seed out since just before Christmas but no joy is there anything else I can do to attract them?

I mean the blackcap was much more compliant and literally appeared the second I put out the apple!!!

littlebug

What part of the country are you in? I've loads of finches but I've never seen a blackcap or redpoll:(
There are lots of thistles where I am in the west... could that be it? as with the other little birds here they're crazy about peanuts, not bothered with the seeds and quite happy with nyjer.

Twister Ella

I'm in South Dublin. The blackcap appeared in the last fews days. And I've just realised all the wrens have disappeared

No other birds are interested in the nyger it seems!! I might try some on the table tomorrow and see what happens.

There isn't a thistle in sight around here - I've been meaning to plant some behind the Buddleja to encourage butterflies - looks like I might have another incentive now!!

Hammer Archer

Take some of mine. Yesterday I counted over 20 chaffinches at one time in my garden As well as a fair few greenfinches and a handful of goldfinches.

Kess73

Nyger is best for redpoll and Goldfinches, but if you want to attract the likes of greenfinch, chaffinch etc then I would advise you to get sunflower hearts in a feeder.

Goldfinch love sunflower hearts as well.

I get about 60 to 80 redpoll each day, and normally in one big flock made up of lesser redpoll and artic redpoll. They go nuts for nyger and will hang around all day eating. The current cold snap has made them far less wary of human though, as with a lot of birds, as earlier today they decided to act out a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film for me

I was out the back filling the nyger feeders and I dropped one of them. I then tried to scoop up the nyger and was mobbed by my hungry redpoll whilst I was doing this.

padi89

As said before sunflower hearts, expensive but just buy in bulk and allocate a certain amount for each day, birds go mad for them.

siochain

there's a group of 10 goldfinches constantly on the peanut feeder and they ignore the wild bird seed mix, greenfinches are more intrested in the seed.

Thats one real positive about the weather, previously the most goldfinches I had seen at one time in the garden was 4, happy days.

DiarmaidGNR

We have a load of them, we just threw out a load of those bird peanuts out on the lawn.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Look, when it comes to garden birds we provide food so they will survive. What birds you get is really up to the wildlife and nature in the area. You can put particualar seeds out etc but please just be happy that you get any birds feeding. Some people would be thrilled to have Blackcaps coming to their gardens instead of 2 dozen Greenfinches. Accept what you get and enjoy them!

VERYinterested

OP, It takes a while for word to get around that you have Nyjer out. But when it does, you will be delighted. I put some out last Spring. Within a fortnight I had Siskins and Goldfinches regularly visiting. The Siskins disappeared, but the Goldies have been a regular feature. Just before Christmas a flock of Redpolls have been on the scene, 20 or 30 of them versus 2 Goldfinches, one of whom has a Brown face rather than red! I had the get a second Nyger feeder at the weekend in Breffni Pets in Windy Arbour, because there was killings with the cold weather. Just wait and they will come. I don't seem to get Chaffinches or Bullfinches though, I have fat balls, nuts and seeds out all year round.

I put some Nyjer in my parent's garden in Churchtown and the Sparrows love it!

Half-cocked

Just thought I'd revive this inactive thread with some news from my garden. I put out Nyjer seed during the Christmas break but didn't have a proper thistle seed feeder - used an ordinary seed feeder instead. No takers. At the start of this month I changed to a proper feeder and within 48 hours I had 3 goldfinches! Now they are up to 8 and I also have 3 greenfinches and 14 linnets:) It's quite congested as the feeder only allows 2 birds at a time, but this has meant that the finches have moved onto the other feeders with black sunflowers and peanuts too. I've started putting Lidl's wild bird seed on the ground below the feeders and the linnets are happy to hoover this up. No sign of any siskins but you can't have everything.....

I'm just wondering if it was all a coincidence or did changing the type of feeder start the ball rolling?

TREVOR H

I put out seed in feeders and on the ground, nuts and fat.
The finches seem to like feeding off the ground and when that runs out they feed off the nuts and seed from the feeders.

This year our Green finch numbers are down and the Chaffinch are down a little.
Perhaps it is related to the disease affecting birds, mainly Greenfinches.
Here's a link from Birdwatch Ireland
http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/News/OutbreaksofdiseaseamongstGreenfinches/tabid/460/Default.aspx

Angus Og

Yep, greenfinches are definitely down this year. If you want redpolls, grow buddleia. At the moment they're still finishing off the buddleia seedheads. Bullfinches are really beautiful, and you can attract them with plenty of bushes. They eat the new buds, or something like that.