Had a magical Tuesday last week with a house finch family

I usually just see cardinals and sparrows at my feeder around 6 AM, but last Tuesday something different happened. A whole flock of house finches showed up, maybe 12 of them, and they just took over the whole setup for like 20 minutes. One little guy kept pecking at the same seed over and over, and I swear he looked right at me through the window. Then a pair of them started building a nest in the hanging basket on my porch, which I didn't even notice till I went out for coffee. It was so cool to see them work together, grabbing twigs and grass from my yard. Has anyone else had a particular morning where one species just dominates your feeder out of nowhere?

3 comments

3 Comments

lee_reed10d ago

Oh yeah, once finches find a spot they'll take over pretty quick. If you want them to keep coming back, try putting out some nyjer seed in a separate feeder, it's like crack for them and it'll save your regular seed for the other birds.

rubysingh10d ago

Take it from someone who's watched feeders turn into finch airports, lol. Once you put that nyjer out in a separate feeder, you'll see them go nuts for it and pretty much ignore everything else. Just make sure you get a feeder with really small holes, cause regular seed will just spill out and waste your money. Also, nyjer can go bad if it sits too long in the sun, so only put out what they'll eat in a few days. I've had finches clean a whole tube feeder in under a week when they're really into it. It's wild how fast they can clear it out, but hey, at least they're not fighting with the cardinals over the black oil sunflower anymore.

uma_taylor4710d ago

Nyjer seed sounds better than my current bird crack, which is just coffee and regret.

-1