Goldfinches, sunflower hearts and wastage- what can you do?
Like many people, I have been feeding sunflower hearts which attracted a lot of goldfinches to my garden. I noticed a huge increase in wastage on the ground underneath the feeder. Not only can this be attractive to a few ground-feeding birds, but it can also attract squirrels and worse still rats. Plus the detritus looked unsightly and would likely be unhygienic for a lot of wildlife as it aged and killed any vegetation underneath it. I wondered why the goldfinches wasted so much of the food. I also noticed that these discarded sunflower scraps were readily eaten on the anti squirrel dome by younger goldfinches. Something I wanted to deter as it is a sure way for them to catch trichomonosis or fat finch disease. If you have finches in your garden watch out for these symptoms as shown in the film.
I noticed that when the goldfinches picked up a full sunflower heart in their thin beaks and either outright rejected it and let it drop, or they manoeuvred it so that the pointed tip and the rounded edge were both protruding outside of their bills and when they closed their beaks this scissor-like action cut off both ends of the sunflower heart allowing the bird to manoeuvre the piece left inside the beak to be further nibbled and eaten. It was this action that caused the waste to fall. I collected the waste as shown in the film and had to put a wire mesh over the discarded pieces as many birds started to eat the waste in the tray! This was only 2 days worth of feeding!
As you can see that’s a considerable amount. So what can you do to stop this waste and potential trichomonosis reservoir? Buy sunflower chips. The waste is massively reduced because the pieces are smaller than a whole heart and the goldfinches can manage them more easily without chopping off large pieces of it saving a huge wastage. You will find that this saves you money as well as you will have much less waste and the bird food, therefore, goes a lot further.
So what birds have used the sunflower heart chips? Bullfinches, chaffinches, greenfinches, house sparrows, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, robins, nuthatches, great spotted woodpecker and even dunnocks have used them from the feeder, which for me is rather unusual. Probably because there is less wastage on the ground for them! Wood pigeons and collared doves could also use them from the feeder, but I stopped that with my anti squirrel and anti wood pigeon bird feeder set up as shown here.
So very interesting, have watched these goings on too.
Thank you!
My pleasure. cheers George NN
I have done the same and it has massively reduced wastage. Like you, I watched the birds on the feeder and often they will pull seeds out and reject them onto the ground until they find the right one. I always thought chips were inferior and waste but they are not. they may be more expensive but cheaper as no waste
Yes, there being less waste means more food is available in the feeder. Thanks for sharing. Cheers George
I have no financial interest in this company, but have now replaced my home made Heath Robinson seed catchers with Homgar’s giant flower shaped gizmos (www.homgar.com). It isn’t just sunflowers which are thrown away by the birds. Niger seeds too. I estimate that almost 50% of the seeds end up in the Homgar. Although some seeds inevitably miss the big flower and reach the Dunnocks etc, we no longer have rats. I do have to dry out the seeds before ‘re-seeding’ the feeders, this is a small bother.
Yes Hugh, yes can be attracted to fallen seeds and will return to eat them. If the supply stops eventually so will the rats. Hopeully! Cheers George NN