Spring and summer are great times of the year for feeding finches. Goldfinches become a beautiful yellow in these months and house finches, purple finches and pine siskins are plentiful. So how do you attract these little birds to your feeders?
Start with the right feeder: Purchase a tube thistle finch feeder. This will be a long cylindrical feeder with small perches and very small seed holes.
Put the feeder in the right location: Mount the feeder in a tree or bush where you have seen finches before. You can move the feeder closer to the house once your birds are used to the feeder and regularly visiting it.
Choose the right food: Goldfinches are known for their love of njyer seed (pictured left).
However,there are other options. The variety of ingredients in Mother Nature's Finch Mix is designed to attract redpolls, pine siskins, goldfinches, housefinches and other finches. Our Mother Nature's finch mix contains ingredients that these small birds love including nyjer seed, finely chopped sunflower seed, canola seed, canarygrass seed, and gold proso millet.
Another option to consider, particularly if you are looking for a "no mess" solution, is our Mother Nature's Fine Chips which are finely chopped sunflower kernels. They feed well through the small holes in finch feeders and are very popular with finches. While the fine chips are a bit more expensive than our Mother Nature's finch mix, there will be no shells under the feeder and no sprouting to worry about.
Finally, when you have your feeder up, you could consider adding a birdbath to your yard. All birds including finches enjoy water.
