Description
Let goldfinches dine in peace!
This tails up upside down goldfinch feeder is designed to reduce house sparrow use by making birds eat seed upside down. Goldfinches are very adapted to this and are considered acrobatic feeding birds. They will hang upside down for longer periods of times to eat.
House finches and house sparrows can still bend and flex to eat upside down. But they can’t do this for nearly as long. Which means they are less likely to hoard these feeders, and that gives your dear little native goldfinches a chance to enjoy their food in peace.
How it works
This tube style finch feeder is designed with perches above the tiny little nyjer seed ports. And the distance from the perch to the port is close enough that a bird cannot easily bend to feed, they have to mostly hang upside down to feed.
This concept was designed based on natural observations of goldfinches hanging upside down off of seed heads, for several minutes at a time to eat. So it takes advantage of what they already do in the wild.
Do goldfinches like upside down feeders?
We are not going to lie to you. Goldfinches do prefer to eat right side up. But this bird, in particular, is adapted to eat upside down, and will do so happily. With that said, if given a choice between a right side up feeder and an upside down feeder, a goldfinch will likely pick the right side up feeder first. They may go to the upside down feeder instead if the right-side up feeder is already occupied.
However without the choice – meaning if only an upside down feeder is available, goldfinches happily use it, and will remained perched there to eat for several minutes at a time. Again, the engineering behind upside down feeders uses our knowledge of what goldfinches will do in the wild.
NOTE: We have tested this feeder for several months without issue. However, individual birds and even local populations may not be keen on these feeders. This type of feeder is designed to discourage invasive house sparrows from hogging your finch seed. We recommend trying this if you’ve had a problem with house sparrows, Eurasian tree sparrows and even house finches keeping your goldfinches away from feeders.
Important notes about care
Finches are known to spread house finch eye disease. While this is more prevalent in house finches, it also infects goldfinches. Therefore, it is very important to keep your feeders clean, and refresh them regularly.
Care Guide:
- Refresh seed every 2 weeks or more
- Clean your finch feeders (and all bird feeders) regularly. Realistically, at least once a month. But it’s even better to go once every other week during the height of bird season (late spring to mid summer).
- When cleaning, disinfect your feeders using bleach. Rinse thoroughly.
- If you observe a sick bird, call your local rehabber. Do not attempt to heal the bird on your own. This is not legal and is often harmful to birds. Then clean your bird feeders and leave them down for at least 7-10 days to allow the infection to run out of the population.
- Using the product Feeder Fresh at the bottom of the feeder can help reduce moisture build-up, making it easier to clean the finch feeders out.
- Using seed saver domes/ hanging baffles (like an umbrella) also reduces moisture, which helps seed last a little bit longer, but also just makes cleaning out tube feeders a lot easier because it’s not as mucky inside.
- Unless you have a large colony of goldfinches that run you out of seed quickly, don’t fill your tube feeders more than half full. This is because you need to refresh your nyjer seed at least every two weeks (and right after bad rains). If it’s not getting eaten quickly enough, you’ll be dumping more seed out rather than it being consumed.
- Make sure your finch feeder is fully dried before adding seed to it.
More about house finch eye disease
