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not another nyjer feeder post?
Well yes actually! Because goldfinches are the birds with the latest nesting season, and because we saw this cool post over at 10,000 Birds, something on nyjer feeders seemed appropriate.One of the sweetest little resident songbirds, they’ll stick around your place if a consistent food and water source is provided. Although they may not be as pretty in winter, their song remains the same.
The article we found interesting was on the Winter Finch Forecast and conveyed some great info on the why, when and where of several species of finches. Did you know crossbills and grosbeaks were part of the finch family? We didn’t!
For some great photos and worthy information, check out the article here
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don’t dead-head those finch feeders!
The only good thing about standing at the sink is catching the bird action on the deck! At present there’s five hummingbird feeders, two bird baths, and an open tray feeder… which squirrels usually hog. And flowers-gotta have plants and color to complete the scenery.Hearing a rustling noise, and seeing movement in those flowers from the corner of my eye, it deserved a closer look. There were two goldfinches feeding and flitting amongst the zinnias. It was pretty cool and well worth a photo, so out on the deck I went with camera in hand. Well, the electric yellow birds didn’t make the shot… but my blue toes did 🙁
In fall, spent flowers like zinnia, coneflower, sunflower… and lots of others with seed heads provide a bounty of food for wild birds. They’re actually nature’s finch feeders. So next time you have the urge to dead-head those spent blooms… don’t! Leave them a while longer so they can do what nature intended… feed the birds.
I never did get close enough for the intended photo… but at least a better shot sans the fee
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The American Goldfinch and a Nyjer Feeder
Goldfinches happen to be one of the latest nesters, we have always conveyed this, but never with the logic behind why this is so. The following appeared on ListServe and answers the question to a T. Pretty interesting stuff!I don’t know much about them, but I have heard that they wait to nest until dandelion thistle is available. Any truth to this?
“American Goldfinches are really interesting birds. I don’t think it’s understood scientifically, but they do time their nesting very closely to the flowering of the entire true thistle family, although they eat a wide variety of small seeds. (They aren’t dependent on dandelion seeds, since dandelions go to seed all season long.) They are almost completely dependent on a seed diet, even feeding their nestlings a seed slurry from their crops (unlike most songbirds–even the seed-eaters–which feed insects to their kids). In part, it is believed that they can feed seeds to growing nestlings because thistle seeds, easily plucked from a nyjer feeder, are so high in protein, compared to other seeds. We used to have a real struggle raising orphaned goldfinches in rehab until we understood the importance of the high protein content of the thistle seeds with which the babies grow up. We used to feed them a seed-based formula, since that’s what the adults do, and they typically failed to thrive. However, once we switched to the insectivorous formula (which doesn’t contain insects per se but has more protein than the seed-based formula does), many of the problems resolved.
Goldfinches are known to eat small seeds other than those from a nyjer feeder This interrelationship with the thistle family makes American Goldfinches pretty much the latest avian breeder in North America, since thistles bloom very late in the season (late July and early August here). At the wildlife rehab center, you know the breeding season is coming to a close when you start to hear those incessant, piercing baby contact call notes ringing through the center halls, boring a hole into your so-totally-done-with-baby-bird-season brain. Music to my ears personally.
Not much action in the nest boxes in central Colorado, although we have one completed White-breasted Nuthatch nest and one that just needs the inner lining. Juniper Titmice and Mountain Chickadees are singing; I hear the downward “phew, phew” calls of Mountain Bluebirds moving around the property. The Golden Eagle in the rock cliff nest over the Arkansas River has been incubating for ~4 weeks, so chicks should hatch in the next couple of weeks. The American Dippers nesting at the bridge across the Arkansas are feeding noisy chicks and the adults are nearly a constant blur in and out of the river scarfing up aquatic insects for them all. Last week in Coaldale, we had ~10″ of snow (only 1-4″ predicted)
that had completely melted/evaporated 24 hours later. (Major snow dump on Tues.; on Thurs., I was checking nest boxes in shorts and a t shirt.) Now, here in the metro Denver area, we’re facing the possibility of 3 days of snow (a rarity here in the arid west) with 6-9″ forecast for us in the western ‘burbs and highs in the 30s those days. Back to winter for a while…”Posted by Tina Mitchell, Coaldale, CO
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