How to Attract American Goldfinches

Rich Edie:

Hi, Rich Edie with Wild Birds Unlimited in Cypress and on Memorial Drive. Today, I want to talk to you about the American goldfinch. American goldfinches are probably the most anticipated winter arrival for us in Houston. They get here starting around the middle of December and they’ll be with us till about the end of March. How do you attract goldfinches? Well, there’s a couple of different ways, but the most popular way is to offer one of our finch feeders along with our finch blend. What is finch blend? Finch blend is a 50-50 mix of fine sunflower chips and Nyger. American goldfinches have really gotten to where they like. The sunflower chips and Nyger’s always been their favorite food. These feeders are specially equipped to handle the finch blend that we offer. You’ll notice the smaller port openings on the side of the feeder. This allows for the finch blend to move freely through the feeder, but pretty much allows just the goldfinches to feed from it.

The yellow is also an important color because goldfinches are attracted to yellow. An interesting fact on goldfinches is they’re one of the few birds that molt twice every year, once in the fall and once in the spring. In the spring, they molt into their bright yellow plumage, the males attracting the females, but then in the fall, they molt back into that drab olive green. They do that for survival because there’s nothing more obvious than a yellow bird in a tree without leaves. Again, goldfinches are starting to show up, and now’s a great time to get your finch feeder ready and provide them with the finch blend from Wild Birds Unlimited.