Finch feeder question.
 

I bought 2 finch feeders, one in a redwood housing and one in a plastic
tube. It appears that the only birds that feed on them are sparrows. I
have not seen any Finches. What can I do to get rid of them feeding on the
feeders and draw the finches? All the sparrows do is crap all over the
place. I removed my feeders for the time being to stop them from coming to
my yard. I live in Springfield, Illinois.
Thanks for your opinions
..

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 17:03:03 GMT, "Ace" wrote:

I bought 2 finch feeders, one in a redwood housing and one in a plastic
tube. It appears that the only birds that feed on them are sparrows. I
have not seen any Finches. What can I do to get rid of them feeding on the
feeders and draw the finches? All the sparrows do is crap all over the
place. I removed my feeders for the time being to stop them from coming to
my yard. I live in Springfield, Illinois.
Thanks for your opinions
.


What kind of finches are you trying to attract?

If goldfinches and pine siskins, get a thistle feeder that has
openings so small that other birds can't get the seeds out.

Be aware that pine siskins tend to be irruptive, and that gold finches
seem to go through phases -- for awhile they will eat nothing but
thistle, then for awhile they won't touch it and favor black oil
sunflower.

"Ace" wrote in message
news:b%nYc.110756$TI1.69723@attbi_s52...
I bought 2 finch feeders, one in a redwood housing and one in a plastic
tube. It appears that the only birds that feed on them are sparrows. I
have not seen any Finches. What can I do to get rid of them feeding on
the
feeders and draw the finches? All the sparrows do is crap all over the
place. I removed my feeders for the time being to stop them from coming
to
my yard. I live in Springfield, Illinois.
Thanks for your opinions


Are there any finches around to attract? What do you mean by "finch
feeder". Is it one with small slits meant for use with niger or one with
larger openings for sunflower seeds? If it is one with larger opening,
there is no way to keep the sparrows off. If it is one with of the thistle
(niger) feeders with small slits, try hanging the feeder upside down. This
makes it more difficult for birds to extract the seeds. Finches generally
figure it out easily, sparrows generally don't.

Keith

First of all make sure it's the right type, as a few other people
recommended. Then it may take a while for the finches to find it, so be
patient.

The finch feeder that works best for me is the fabric mesh kind. I never
see anything but goldfinches on it, and sometime they're so thick you can
barely see the feeder. The downside is that one only lasts about 6 months,
but since they're so cheap and the finches love them, I don't mind replacing
them.
--
Jacqueline
Carmichaels PA
"Ace" wrote in message
news:b%nYc.110756$TI1.69723@attbi_s52...
I bought 2 finch feeders, one in a redwood housing and one in a plastic
tube. It appears that the only birds that feed on them are sparrows. I
have not seen any Finches. What can I do to get rid of them feeding on
the
feeders and draw the finches? All the sparrows do is crap all over the
place. I removed my feeders for the time being to stop them from coming
to
my yard. I live in Springfield, Illinois.
Thanks for your opinions
.

Thanks for your replies.
I was trying to attract mainly the yellow ones. The Finch feeders I have are
ones I purchased from Menard's Home Center. One is a tall redwood narrow
house type and the other is a clear plastic tube type with round yellow
perches by each little slot.

"Paul Below" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 17:03:03 GMT, "Ace" wrote:

I bought 2 finch feeders, one in a redwood housing and one in a plastic
tube. It appears that the only birds that feed on them are sparrows. I
have not seen any Finches. What can I do to get rid of them feeding on
the
feeders and draw the finches? All the sparrows do is crap all over the
place. I removed my feeders for the time being to stop them from coming
to
my yard. I live in Springfield, Illinois.
Thanks for your opinions
.


What kind of finches are you trying to attract?

If goldfinches and pine siskins, get a thistle feeder that has
openings so small that other birds can't get the seeds out.

Be aware that pine siskins tend to be irruptive, and that gold finches
seem to go through phases -- for awhile they will eat nothing but
thistle, then for awhile they won't touch it and favor black oil
sunflower.

Ace, since it is gettig a bit late in the year, and accordig to where
you live, the goldfinch may not have their Spring and Summer plumage.
Winter of 2000/2001 a whole flock of about30 or so rather drab
greenish yellow breasted birds came to my feeders. Swamped them..
practically took them over. I looked at my bird book and they looked
like the Vireos in my book..soooo...I thought they were Vireos.. found
out later they were indeed Goldfinch in their winter clothing!
cant always tell a bird by its cover G
Leo

"Ace" wrote in message news:HCsYc.66841$9d6.58386@attbi_s54...
Thanks for your replies.
I was trying to attract mainly the yellow ones. The Finch feeders I have are
ones I purchased from Menard's Home Center. One is a tall redwood narrow
house type and the other is a clear plastic tube type with round yellow
perches by each little slot.

Lee wrote:
Ace, since it is gettig a bit late in the year, and accordig to where
you live, the goldfinch may not have their Spring and Summer plumage.
Winter of 2000/2001 a whole flock of about30 or so rather drab
greenish yellow breasted birds came to my feeders. Swamped them..
practically took them over. I looked at my bird book and they looked
like the Vireos in my book..soooo...I thought they were Vireos.. found
out later they were indeed Goldfinch in their winter clothing!
cant always tell a bird by its cover G

The ones with good fashion sense don't wear white after Labor Day. g

--
Warren H.

==========
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Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Books for your Northwest garden:
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/nwgarden/index.html

"Ace" expounded:

I bought 2 finch feeders, one in a redwood housing and one in a plastic
tube. It appears that the only birds that feed on them are sparrows. I
have not seen any Finches. What can I do to get rid of them feeding on the
feeders and draw the finches? All the sparrows do is crap all over the
place. I removed my feeders for the time being to stop them from coming to
my yard. I live in Springfield, Illinois.
Thanks for your opinions
.


I've had the best luck with feeding goldfinches with thistle socks.
They love them! Four or five at a time will cling to the sock.
Cheap, too! G
--
Ann, Gardening in zone 6a
Just south of Boston, MA
********************************

"Ace" wrote:


Thanks for your replies.
I was trying to attract mainly the yellow ones. The Finch feeders I have are
ones I purchased from Menard's Home Center. One is a tall redwood narrow
house type and the other is a clear plastic tube type with round yellow
perches by each little slot.

If you just want to feed Goldfinches, then get the feeder designed
specifically for them. It is a tube feeder that feeds niger
thistle--- but the kicker is that the slots are *below* the perches.
It seems the Goldfinches are the only ones who can eat upside down.
I've had a couple birds perch on mine on occasion, but it is usually
filled up with Goldfinches.

I've really been blessed this year. I have 2 tube feeders [the
goldfinch feeder & another for small birds] and a slab of suet. 2
pairs of cardinals, a pair of [remarkably well behaved] blue jays, a
pair of Indigo Buntings, 6-7 mourning doves, and maybe a dozen
goldfinches visit my feeders. Also an assortment of woodpeckers,
chickadees & creepers. I've seen one grackle-- but no wrens or
sparrows. [A pair of Orioles showed up for the Mulberries when they
were ripe, but I couldn't interest them in oranges or grapes & they've
moved on.]

[no luck at all with the Hummingbird feeder, though-- but as soon as
the Bee Balm was open they showed up.]

Jim

I've had the best luck with feeding goldfinches with thistle socks.
They love them!

The socks work well. Tie a yellow ribbon on top to attract the goldfinches.
It really works.

Marilyn

"Jim Elbrecht" wrote in message
...
"Ace" wrote:
...
If you just want to feed Goldfinches, then get the feeder designed
specifically for them. It is a tube feeder that feeds niger
thistle--- but the kicker is that the slots are *below* the perches.
It seems the Goldfinches are the only ones who can eat upside down.
I've had a couple birds perch on mine on occasion, but it is usually
filled up with Goldfinches.
...

We also have the upside-down finch feeders, the cheap plastic tube types.
The lesser goldfinches have
been back (Phoenix AZ) since mid August. They always leave for cooler
regions in the summer but return when the nighttime and early morning temps
begin to drop into the 70s. The house finches still came to the upside-down
feeders and they can learn to do the upside down thing but can't hang in
there as long as the goldfinches. We solved the problem by putting a
cylinder of 1-inch chicken netting about a foot in diameter around the
feeder (similar to the no-squirrel cages) and closing off the top and
bottom. Then we had to add a 2nd netting cylinder around the first and
offset it about 1/8 inch because the house finches could get through the
openings in the first one. Last year we had as many as 10 goldfinches on
the perches of two feeders at the same time while the house finches were
hanging onto he netting and trying, unsuccessfully, to get in. We also
still use the conventional rightside up feeders for other birds on the
opposite side of the house well away from the finch feeders. Olin

You went to so much work to exclude the house finches. They have to eat too.
The longer you feed birds, the more you will see the beauty in all of them.

Marilyn in Ohio

"Allview" wrote in message
...
You went to so much work to exclude the house finches. They have to eat
too.
The longer you feed birds, the more you will see the beauty in all of
them.
Marilyn in Ohio

No. As I said in my post:

"... We also still use the conventional rightside up feeders for other
birds on the opposite side of the house well away from the finch feeders.
...."

The house finches, sparrows et. al. now use the other feeders. And it
really wasn't difficult. The other birds, house finches, sparrows and
towhees were hogging the feeders and keeping the goldfinches away. The
only birds we discourage are pigeons and grackles. Olin

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 22:18:15 GMT, "Ace" wrote:

I was trying to attract mainly the yellow ones. The Finch feeders I have are
ones I purchased from Menard's Home Center. One is a tall redwood narrow
house type and the other is a clear plastic tube type with round yellow
perches by each little slot.

One thing you can try is remove the little metal perches from a tube
feeder. The sparrows may not be able to hang on the feeder well
enough to get seeds out.