Gardeners Go For Gold – Wild Birds In The Garden.

Gardeners go for Gold
There has been a phenomenal increase in the numbers of these striking birds in gardens over the past two decades. Improved foods and feeder designs used by garden birdwatchers, coupled with foraging pressures due to agricultural intensification, have encouraged Goldfinches into more urban areas.
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Garden BirdWatch survey* shows that numbers of this colourful finch soar at this time of year as seed availability in the wider countryside is depleted. Goldfinches are also partial migrants to overseas wintering grounds, typically in France or Spain. During April, many of these winter wanderers return, swelling numbers that drop into gardens.
Only 12% of BTO Garden BirdWatchers were visited by Goldfinches during a typical week in April 1995. Last year, this figure had rocketed to 58% and shows no sign of levelling off.
Feeding habits
Goldfinches are particularly partial to small, oil-rich seeds, such as nyger and sunflower hearts. Nyger seed is very fine and so a specialised nyger feeder is required. Gardeners can also help Goldfinches by fostering a number of plant species, mostly in the family Asteraceae (e.g. groundsels), which provide alternative ‘natural’ foods. Teasels are another favourite, with Goldfinches being the only UK finch with a long enough beak to be able to extract its seeds. Like other common finches, Goldfinches appear to favour gardens that have large trees nearby, which help them to survey an area before dropping down onto feeders.
Top feeding suggestions
For the best chance of attracting Goldfinches, choose BTO Sunflower Hearts provided in a BTO Seed Feeder, which has a FeedSafe antibacterial coating or BTO Nyger Seed provided in a BTO Nyger Seed Feeder, also with a FeedSafe antibacterial coating.
What to look for
Adults have red, clown-like faces with buff breast and shoulders. Their wings are mainly black, with white spots but are characterised most obviously by a broad, gold wing-bar on each wing. Recently fledged birds do not have a red face, which moults through during late summer and autumn, helping them to stay concealed from predators and reducing the likelihood that adult Goldfinches will see them as a threat. Goldfinches are slightly smaller than Chaffinches and Greenfinches.
For a free BTO Goldfinch Factsheet: email gbw@bto.org, telephone 01842-750050 or write to Goldfinch Factsheet, Garden BirdWatch, BTO, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU.