Why Finches Are Worth Encouraging

Few garden visitors lift the spirits quite like a charm of goldfinches, all crimson faces, gold bars and chatter, jostling for space on a feeder. Chaffinches, with their soft pink breasts and neat white wing bars, are just as welcome, and the striking greenfinch — now sadly much rarer than it once was — is a genuine thrill when it turns up. Add siskins in a cold snap and the occasional redpoll, and a modest back garden can become a proper winter finch station.

Finches are largely seed-eaters, which makes them relatively easy to please. Give them the right food, present it well, keep everything spotlessly clean and place feeders where the birds feel safe, and you will be rewarded with daily visits from autumn right through to spring.

Get the Food Right: Sunflower Hearts and Nyjer

If you buy only two things for finches, make them sunflower hearts and nyjer seed. Each appeals to a slightly different set of birds, and between them they cover almost every finch likely to visit a UK garden.

• Sunflower hearts are the decorticated kernels, so there are no husks to sweep up and no waste. They are high in oil and energy, and they suit chaffinches, greenfinches, siskins and bullfinches. Almost every finch in the garden will take them, which makes them the single best all-round offering.
• Nyjer seed is the small, dark, slender seed that goldfinches adore. It needs a dedicated feeder with tiny ports, because the seed is fine enough to pour straight through a standard mesh. A nyjer feeder beside a sunflower heart feeder is a classic combination.
• A little variety helps in hard weather. A handful of mixed seed or some chopped peanuts will broaden the appeal, but avoid cheap mixes bulked out with wheat and split peas, which most finches simply kick to the ground.

Offer food year-round rather than only in winter. Finches will use feeders in spring and summer too, and a reliable supply keeps them coming back once the cold returns.

Choosing Feeders and Where to Hang Them

Hanging feeders are ideal. They keep food off the ground, reduce the risk of rats and cats, and let you control exactly what is on offer. A good-quality feeder with a sturdy hanger and a decent perch ring will serve you for years.

Position matters enormously. Finches are nervous birds when they are out in the open, and they will abandon a feeder that leaves them exposed. Aim for the following:

• Hang feeders two to three metres from a hedge, shrub or tree so birds have somewhere to dash for cover, but not so close that cats can lurk unseen behind the foliage.
• Set them roughly 1.5 to 2 metres above the ground, high enough to feel safe but low enough to refill comfortably.
• Place feeders where you can watch them — near a window, but either within a metre of the glass (so birds cannot build up speed) or well over three metres away, with the glass marked to prevent collisions.
• Put out more than one feeder if you can. Finches squabble, and a second feeding station reduces crowding and the spread of disease.

Goldfinches often prefer a feeder with small, fine perches, while chaffinches are just as happy on a tray or a bird table. A hanging tray beneath your feeders will catch spilled sunflower hearts and keep the chaffinches busy.

Cleanliness Is Not Optional

Finches are particularly vulnerable to trichomonosis, the disease that has devastated greenfinch numbers across the UK since 2005. Dirty feeders and overcrowding are the main ways it spreads, so cleaning is the single most important job in a finch-friendly garden.

• Wash feeders every fortnight at minimum, and weekly during busy periods or mild, damp weather.
• Take them apart, scrub every port and perch with hot soapy water and a bottle brush, then rinse thoroughly.
• Disinfect with a bird-safe product, rinse again, and let everything dry completely before refilling.
• Rotate feeders and move them to a fresh spot every few weeks so that dropped seed and droppings do not build up in one place.
• If you see a bird looking fluffed up, lethargic or struggling to swallow, take all feeders down for two weeks, clean them thoroughly, and let the visitors disperse.

Provide a shallow bird bath too, refreshed daily. Clean water is as important as clean food.

Plant for Finches as Well as Feeding Them

Feeders are only half the story. A garden that grows its own seed heads and berries will hold finches for far longer and give them natural food when the feeders run low.

• Teasel, knapweed, evening primrose and annual sunflower all produce seed that goldfinches and chaffinches will strip happily.
• Leave seed heads standing through autumn and winter instead of cutting everything back in October. Tidiness is the enemy of wildlife gardening.
• Alder, birch and rowan provide seeds and berries, while hawthorn and blackthorn hedges give cover, nesting sites and a bullfinch-friendly larder.
• Let a few aphids live. Chaffinches and greenfinches feed their chicks on insects and grubs in spring, so a garden with some natural mess supports more successful nests.

Through the Seasons

In autumn and winter, finches gather in flocks and will reward a generous, reliable feeding regime. Keep feeders topped up in the morning and late afternoon, when birds feed hardest, and break the ice on the bird bath.

Come spring, chaffinches pair up and nest in hedges and creepers, so avoid heavy pruning between March and August. Goldfinches nest late, often in July or August, in the outer branches of trees, and they will still be visiting feeders while they raise their young.

By summer, many natural seeds are ripening and feeder traffic slows — do not take that as a sign to pack up. Keep a little food out, keep everything clean, and your finches will stay in the habit of visiting. Come the first hard frost, they will know exactly where to come.