Messy eaters, those House Finches
Well, I've had the bird feeder up for about a month, and have had some interesting observations...
• Birds are pigs. These things eat like you would not believe. In the first month I've gone through 9 lbs of birdseed. But it is winter and they need the help.
• Birds must have eating schedules. The feeder will be mobbed for a while, then completely empty. I haven't quite figured that out yet.
House Finch waiting for an open spot on the feeder
• Sparrows are bullies. House and White Throated sparrows have found the feeder. They will usually try to push out any other birds who want to grab a bite.
• House Finches are the next bullies. These are new birds to the area, and I've spotted at least 3 couples in the area now. Once a pair of House Finches are perched eating, they will scar away all the other finches.
House Finch giving me attitude
• That being said, some birds are getting wicked fat. I worry I'll come home one day and find a few birds that just cannot fly away. Part of the problem is someone in the parks who also feeds the birds. A secondary problem is the park feeders leave too much food, so the rats are now having a banquet at night with the extra birdseed / bread crumbs from this unfortunate do-gooder.
White-Throated Sparrow - putting on weight? or fluffing up to stay warm?
• A Black-Capped Chickadee is also visiting. but he is very timid and will fly in, peck for a few seconds then fly off.
Black-Capped Chickadee on a tree, waiting to hit the feeder again
• Big birds are hungry too. The bird feeder can only accommodate smaller birds but they are messy eaters. So eating the dropped seed on the ground are Blue Jays, Cardinals and Mourning Doves.
• I wanted to see some more birds, so I bought a suet feeder. The Blue Jay does pick from it form time to time, as well as the Chickadee. No woodpeckers there yet, although I've seen one in the tree across from me. (Woodpeckers are supposed to like suet).
Downy Woodpecker in the tree. Haven't seen him at the suet yet.
Video of the Chickadee feasting.
A gang of house finches on the tree across the way
We'll see what the next month brings. I only plan on keeping the feeder up until Spring time, when birds can find natural food again. Trying different seed blends as well to see if one blend attracts fewer sparrows...
Thanks for visiting And see more birding photos on my Flickr album!!
