Featured Products
Occasionally we will be featuring products to help you attract your favorite feathered friends or defeat the squirrels in your yard. Check back often to see what's new!
Products to attract and enjoy Goldfinches
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Invite
Goldfinches to your yard with a thistle seed tube feeder like the WBU Finch
Feeder. The WBU brand finch tubes are designed with armored feeding stations
and have a seed deflector which ensures all seed is eaten and does not
sit at the bottom
of the feeder.
The seed ports have smaller holes that allow the smaller
-billed finches
to pull out the thistle/niger seed or fine sunflower chips. Made of clear
polycarbonate plastic. There are 3 models available, 6 perch, 8 perch and
10 perch feeders
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Another design is the mesh finch feeder which is the modern version of
the cloth mesh bag, but in stainless steel. These feeders show off the
acrobatics of the Goldfinch as they cling to the wire mesh to feed. These
feeders come in 2 sizes, 3/4 and 1 1/4 quart capacity.
Please inquire at your local central NY Wild Birds Unlimited store for the wide variety of other products available to help you attract, feed and enjoy Goldfinches in your yard.
The Thistle Bird - Goldfinch...
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The
American Goldfinch is a bird of many aliases: wild canary, yellowbird,
lettuce bird, and thistle bird, just to name a few. Which name a person
uses often reveals a lot about their interests and hobbies.
Serious birders call it by its "official" name of American Goldfinch.
Ask a gardening enthusiast and you might hear the name "lettuce bird" due
to the bird's practice of nibbling at the tender young leaves of this vegetable.
Most causal birdwatchers simply use the term "wild canary" because
its magnificent yellow and black coloration remind them of a pet store
canary.
A rarely used, but debatably more accurate name, is "thistle bird." It
has long been known that thistle plants and goldfinch are almost inseparable,
and even its genus name, Caruelis, is from the Latin word carduus, meaning "thistle."
Goldfinches rely heavily on thistle plants as a source of food and for
nest-building materials. So much so, that during a research study in Michigan
that observed over 250 nests, no nest was ever found more than 300 yards
away from an abundant supply of thistle seed.
Goldfinches delay the start of their nesting behavior until the thistles
come into bloom so they can anticipate an abundant and reliable supply
of seeds for their young. Look for those blossoms any day now, and keep
your WBU finch feeder filled with fresh Nyjer® (thistle) seed to
welcome the nesting "thistle birds" to your backyard refuge.
