Secrets to Attracting Flocks of Happy Finches to Your Yard

Male Purple Finch (a/k/a Raspberry Finch)

Such energy and color!  I love finches: goldfinches, house finches, purple finches, crossbills, red polls, evening grosbeaks, and pine siskins.  They range from greens, to yellows, to oranges to raspberry red, and they have wonderful liquid songs that uplift the spirit.  You cannot help but be happy when finches are around.

On top of that, they eat a ton of weed seeds!  Their favorite seeds come from the thistle, also purple cone flowers, iron weed, dandelions, asters, cosmos, zinnias, and of course, sunflowers.  Once in a while they will eat a bug, but they are granivorous as a rule.

People so enjoyed their color and lovely songs that purple finches and house finches were once sold as caged birds!   To please either of these finches, plant cherry trees.  House finches in particular have a sweet tooth.  When hummingbirds aren't looking, they will steal some of their nectar! 

American Goldfinches Male and Female, Mourning Doves in the foreground.
by Grandma Pearl

American goldfinches delay raising a family until late summer to coincide with the ripening of the seeds they love.  They feed only seeds to their young, rather than any bugs or protein.  Their song and color is so beautiful that they are known as 'wild canaries'.  In the wintertime, they burrow under the snow for insulation against the cold.

This winter I have had mixed flocks of finches that have numbered in the hundreds!  I know because I participated in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, as I do every year.  I'm sharing my secrets for finch success so that you may enjoy the colors and music of these awesome little birds.

Goldfinches in their winter plumage, lining the tree branches, waiting their turn at the feeders.
by Grandma Pearl

The Best Feeders for Attracting Colorful Finches:

• Nyjer (Thistle) Tube-style Feeder       
• Sunflower Tube-style Feeder               
• Ground Tray Feeder                                        
• Platform Feeder                                               
• Gazebo-style Feeder                                                     
• Fruit Feeder                                                       
• Basket Feeder   
• Heated Bird Bath or Fountain--Finches are 'heavy drinkers' year round, and need a constant open water supply  to help digest all that plant fiber.  They also love to be clean, and bathe often.    

Male House Finch enjoying a sunflower seed.
by Grandma Pearl

These little finches love to swing as they pluck seeds from this easy-to-make Basket Feeder
by Grandma Pearl

Best Foods for Attracting Finches:

• Nyjer (Thistle) seed
• Black Oil Sunflower seed
• Peanut Hearts
• Suet
• White Proso Millet
• Fruit
• Cracked Corn
• Rock Salt or Salt Block
• Sugar Water (hummingbird nectar)

If you only have room for one or two feeders, or your bird feeding budget is small, choose the tube-style feeders:  one for thistle seed and one for black oil sunflower seed.  You may also wish to add a heavy dish in which to put a few small pieces of apples that have been coated in sugar water.  What a treat for your finches to enjoy when it's cold outside!

A block of salt placed on the ground, or a handful of rock salt scattered under the feeders, will also please your chatty little finches.  You can also toss handfuls of sunflower seed over the snow.  As they forage, they will pick up water from the snow to help with their digestion.

American Goldfinches foraging for sunflower seeds in the snow.
by Grandma Pearl

All birds need a source of grit, or tiny stones that they use in their crops to help grind up their food.  They don't have the stomach acids we do, so that is how their food is broken down for use in their bodies.  You can find a small bag of bird sand or grit at the pet store.  It's an inexpensive way to help out all your birds, especially in the wintertime when snow covers the ground where they would normally find the fine grit they need.

Make sure to keep your tube feeders very clean.  If you should find mold in the seed tubes, dump them out immediately.  Then clean your feeders with a solution of 9 parts of warm water to 1 part of household bleach.  This will kill any bacteria that would otherwise cause harm to your birds.  Make sure the tube feeder is thoroughly dry before refilling and re-hanging.  By the way, a long-handled narrow brush is useful for cleaning tube feeders.

Mold is also a sign that birds are not eating as much seed as you have put out.  Try starting with a smaller amount of seeds in a tube feeder until your finch flock expands as the word gets out around the neighborhood!

Also, don't allow seeds to accumulate under the feeders.  Mold and bacteria from droppings can develop.  Finches love to forage on the ground, and you don't want them to get sick or worse.  I use a leaf vacuum to suck up all those spent bird seeds shells; then I toss them into the garbage.  It isn't wise to use them as compost because sunflower seeds in particular do not get along well with other plants.  In short, they poison them, which can cause some nearby plants to be deformed or die altogether. 

Enjoy your fascinating flocks of finches.  I guarantee they will put a smile on your face!

Grandma Pearl  

Finches Come in all the colors of the rainbow

 Flocks of Finches

Make An Easy Basket Feeder

Easy Ways to Landscape under Bird Feeders   

How to Make Your Own Suet

The Importance of Providing Water for Birds

What's the Difference Between a Purple Finch and a House Finch?

Male Purple Finch and Male House Finch Share the Same Tree
by Grandma Pearl

Just 2 days ago I was fortunate enough to notice both a male purple finch and a fledgling male house finch sharing the same tree branches.  If you look closely, you can see some of the differences in coloration and where it occurs on each bird.

Male purple finches (he's on the upper left side of the above picture) have a bright raspberry colored head, chest and rump.  When the sun's rays strike that rose hue just right, you're hit with the most beautifully intense rose red that is amazingly vibrant. 

House finches sport a brown patch behind their eye, and they have a brown upper back and wings.  Brown streaks mark the house finch's chest, while the male purple finch has no brown streaks on its chest.  Male house finches show a more reddish-orange coloration, which can vary through the orange shades and into the yellow spectrum, depending upon how many carotenoids they have ingested from their food. 

Their neck and upper chest, rump and stripe above the eye, and forehead are all orange.
Note, too, the difference in the tails.  Purple finches have a more deeply notched tail; house finches have a more square-shaped tail with just a slight notch.

The lovely warbling songs of the purple finches always brighten my day, especially when springtime is at hand.  House finches, on the other hand, have a less harmonious song, I think, than the purple finches.  It is, however, joyful and as bright as their warm orange color.  Both of these finches are very close in size, with the house finch being just a tad smaller at about 5-3/4 inches.

In both the purple finch and the house finch, females are heavily streaked.  House finch females are a lighter shade of brown with a brown head.  Purple finch females have a white streak behind their eye and a brown patch on their cheek.

The little house finch fledgling in my picture is just learning how to fly by making short hops from bush to tree branch.  One of the first places I saw him land, albeit a little awkwardly, was the tube seed feeder.  There he perched and dined for quite some time.  Occasionally he traded one perch for another, but seemed to be comfortable on that feeder.
Grandma Pearl

Fledgling Male House Finch Enjoys Sunflower Seeds
by Grandma Pearl

Finches Come in All the Colors of the Rainbow
How Birds Get Their Colors
Rustic Bird Houses Made from Reclaimed Antique Barn Wood

Finches Come In All the Colors of the Rainbow!

Remember that old mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow?  

R O Y G B I V representing Red—Orange—Yellow—Green—Blue—Indigo—Violet

Well, members of the finch family represent all those colors and more.  These seed and fruit loving birds literally come in all the colors of the rainbow!  Beautiful and musical, Mother Nature has created finches for our pleasure.  They are most helpful when ridding us of weed seeds, and serenading us with their cheerfully expressive songs. Smaller finches range in size from 5 to 6”, while grosbeaks are the largest at 8”.

Male Purple Finch
by Grandma Pearl

Blue Grosbeak from Dan Pancamo, flickr.com, cc-by-sa

The Purple Finch, also known as Raspberry Finch, and the Blue Grosbeak are just two of the colorful members of the rainbow.  Can you guess which finch is yellow? violet? orange?

Find out Here

With all the rain we've had lately, my gardens have exploded with colorful blooms!  I love to use flowers and plants that attract birds, butterflies and beneficial insects.  Adding to the native wildflowers and bushes that my resident birds recognize and that are familiar to them, keeps my yard flowering all season long.

variegated pink and white weigela bush
by Grandma Pearl

Variegated pink and white weigela bush is a hummingbird magnet.  It also attracts butterflies and bees.  I'm in zone 5 and it has always been hardy here.  It will bloom for about a month, and last year it bloomed again toward the end of the summer!  The blossoms start out pink and then turn white with blush pink centers.  I have several weigela bushes, and the hummers are in and out of them constantly all day long.

Attract Birds With Flowers

white weigela blossoms--hummingbird magnets
by Grandma Pearl

My oregano in one part of the herb garden.
Grandma Pearl

When the oregano flowers in late summer, it attracts lots of beneficial insects and bees, plus butterflies.  It's a very popular plant.  I use this herb all the time in cooking and salads.  In the foreground is golden oregano, in the background near the lattice is regular oregano.  There is also monarda, or bee balm, just starting to grow.  Bee balm is another hummingbird magnet, and it attracts butterflies and bees.  I love the smell of it, and I can always tell when the bees or hummers are working it.  The aroma is wonderful!

Grandma Pearl

See the newest Rustic Bird Houses made from antique reclaimed barnwood HERE

List of Flowers that Attract Hummingbirds

Raspberry Finches, Purple Violets, Lavender Lungwort and more

Think Pink. . . And Purple!

                                                                           

Beautiful Flowering Quince.  This bush doesn't mind being in partial shade.  The soil is moist at times, but it doesn't mind that either.  Its shoots will spread all around the perimeter of the bush.  This is an ornamental shrub of the rose family, complete with thorns!  Regular quince produces fruit that can be preserved as marmalade.  The beautiful flowers remind me of old-fashioned roses.  A reliable plant that produces year after year.

Raspberry Finch, also known as Purple Finch.  This handsome bird is about 6" in size, and is similar to the House Finch, which I think is more of an orange color.  Their warbles are bubbly and make me smile.  Currently I have a large flock that visits my feeders every day.  Their favorite food seems to be the black oil sunflower seeds.  The purple finches arrived in late March and have been serenading me daily ever since.  Female purple finches are heavily streaked with brown, which is an excellent camouflage when they are nesting and tending their nestlings.  Look for their notched tail and cheerful songs.   

 
 My Crabapple is just getting ready to bloom.  I planted it last year in the hopes that it would eventually set fruit and attract a whole bunch of birds.  Grosbeaks, Tanagers, Warblers, Orioles and Cedar Waxwings all love fruit.  When you think about it, they live in the tropics all winter.  So their food sources are tropical fruits.  Another favorite is mulberries, which I also added to my garden last year.  This year I also planted Concord grapes...another irresistible treat for the birds. 

 Purple Salvia is a hands down favorite of bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, as well as hummingbird moths.  It is a perennial that I have included in all my gardens.  Today I saw bumblebees, bee flies, hover flies and little sweat bees sipping nectar from the newly-opened flowers.  Salvia is easy to grow in almost all conditions.  It prefers full sun, but will tolerate some shade.  There are many varieties and colors from which to choose.  This one compliments my blue salvia, as well as the scarlet and black and blue varieties.  They will be flowering by the end of May.

 These are the burgundy and green leaves just emerging from my pink cloud spirea plants.  I originally transplanted one from my Mom's garden where it was very well behaved.  However, in my shady woods it has sprung up literally everywhere.  It is not bothered by deer, rabbits, bugs or slugs.  The flowers will bloom after the lilacs have finished flowering.  Favored by the beneficial insects and butterflies, its flowers are tiny clusters that make an almost-flat landing  pad for the butterflies and bees.

Diminutive and dainty purple woodland violets are just beginning to crop up in the strangest places.  This one is growing in my stone driveway!  They are obviously not fussy at all about soil or moisture because this is a very dry area.  In Christian symbolism violets represent modesty and humbleness.  It is said that violets spring up from the graves of saints and virgins.  Folktales from England and France often associate violets with death and the mourning of loved ones who have passed.

Lungwort is such a strange-sounding word for this dainty flower with its interesting speckled leaves.  My aunt gave me several of these plants, which have since spread out to be a very pretty part of one of my cottage gardens.  It is a medicinal herb of the borage family, and its other name is Pulmonaria.  As you can imagine, it is excellent for clearing the lungs of congestion and relieving symptoms caused from viral and bacterial infections affecting the lungs.  Flowers begin as pink in color and turn to blue with pink centers as they continue to bloom.  It was originally named because the leaves resembled the lungs and not because of its medicinal use.

Barberry with its burgundy leaves and thorny spines, also produces small pinkish-white flowers that eventually become small fruits.  The berberine made by this plant is turned into an antibacterial compound.  

I placed my barberry plants on the outside perimeter of my cottage garden fence.  They protect plants like lilies from the deer that like to think my gardens are their private salad bars!   

This plant likes full sun, but will tolerate part shade.  Mine face the morning sun and receive afternoon shade.  I gave it organic-rich soil and keep it watered during dry spells.

Grandma Pearl