Birdfeeders

Finches can easily become some of your favorite backyard birds. They aren’t particularly shy around people, they gather in sociable crowds and their energetic behavior is always entertaining. The most common members of this family to observe at your bird feeders are goldfinches, purple finches and house finches. The goldfinches are the easiest to identify for they are bright yellow with black and white wings. They will gather with as many of them as will fit on a thistle feeder, which holds the tiny nyjer seed. It’s much harder to tell the difference between the purple finches and the house finches. The males of both species sport lots of red, but the purple finch has a red back as well as chest and head. The females of both species are streaky brown. Both the purple and house finches will flock to sunflower seeds in tube feeders, hopper feeders and platform feeders. They can even be visitors to window feeders that hold sunflower seeds. Most birds eat insects at least some of the time, but finches feed almost exclusively on seeds all year long.