Hello,
I hope someone can help. I managed to take a picture of what we think is a goldfinch not very good as its taken through the window. My mum and I are having a debate as to whether it is a female or a juvenile. Does anyone know?
Hi Helena,
Certainly looks like a Goldfinch to me and I would say it is a juvenile.
Graham
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Looks like a juvenile goldfinch to me!
Have you told George to wake up? www.rspb.org.uk/savingspecialplaces/
Hi Helena
Yes I agree with Graham, we have had quite a few around the feeders this year they seem to enjoy niger seeds and are such lovely striking birds, with a noticeable ch ch ch sound.
Please how did you get pic on this site- I can on other sites-- lol--Oh I've sussed it .
Forgot to say if you go to the webcam dropdown box on home page you will find an identify birds tag, it will even give you the bird sounds and a vidio, great help-enjoy. x
Thanks for all your thoughts, I win! I thought it was a juvenile too! Funny you should mention the Niger seed, I went to the RSPB at Bempton the other day and saw a small niger seed feeder and thought I would give it a go. I had seen one goldfinch since moving into the house in June. After putting out the feeder I got more and more gold finches into the garden, all of which have completely ignored the niger seed and much prefer the sunflower hearts!
Thanks again for solving out debate.
HI Helena,
If you grow some teasles in your garden or in a tub Goldfinches loves the dried out seed. All you need to do is stake them up and open the dried heads then sit back and watch the finches.
Yes this is a Juvenile,as you can see adult sports a rather nice red mask.
Linden
"Click Click"
So are the Adults the same then? I have tried to find out on the internet but not having much luck!
Its very hard to tell the male from the female in the field.
Juvenile has wing and tail feathers as adult's (broad bright yellow wingbars)
otherwise grey-brown with some dark streaks.
Hope this helps
Well a bit late in to this ID game, but yes that is a juvenile goldfinch, goldfinches are little addicts for nyjer seed.
Actually goldfinches have helped all the other birds in my garden;
Our neighbour doesn't really like me putting out food for the birds because it attracts feral pigeons (we're in central London) and they don't like the starlings either and so was asking me to stop. However when the goldfinches started appearing he asked about them because they were so beautiful and he decided he liked them flying around. He'd never heard of them, but now is a bit more relaxed about the other feeders.
Yes, I agree with everyone here that it is a Juv Goldfinch. Super picture too!.
They do like their Nyger Seed so you cannot go wrong there.
We have a 2 perch Nyger feeder,. We feel tempted to get a 4 perch Nyger feeder instead, as we always seen to have 4 Goldfinches around at one one - so that is a way of stopping them being impatient with one another.
Helena After putting out the feeder I got more and more gold finches into the garden, all of which have completely ignored the niger seed and much prefer the sunflower hearts!
After putting out the feeder I got more and more gold finches into the garden, all of which have completely ignored the niger seed and much prefer the sunflower hearts!
I found the same thing Helena! They completey ignored the niger seed I bought but they love the sunflower hearts so that's what I've stuck with ever since!
"All weeds are flowers, once you get to know them" (Eeyore)
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I find the same - Niger seed ingored, but they love sunflower hearts & I get 6 or more on each feeder. However just 25 yards away a neighbour has a Niger seed feeder, which they also spend time on.
Does anybody know why they always spit part of the sunflower seed out? I have studied the carefully & they take a seed, bite it and spit (not drop) a small piece of the seed.
Hi, I was told if I put Niger seed out that the gold finches would flock to it. I had spotted one or two around but never in my garden. I bought the feeder and seed and put it up on Saturday and by Monday we had about 6 feeding there. They are so beautiful.