Niger seed & Goldfinches??

[Guest pip]

After 3 years of trying to make my cat and magpie infested property bird friendly i have managed to see some Goldfinches ,i have a feeder with niger seed in it and they seem to gorge on it but i read in gage and aviary that too much can kill them ,is this true or can they handle it ok???

[Dawn B 212]

Goldfinches are in flocks at the moment, I counted 18 on 4 feeders in our orchard on Saturday, and the Cats being there dont make a dying bit of difference, although they are behind bars!! Nyger seeds are fine, but also Sunflower hearts, they love them, you will get lots of other species too, if you feed hearts. We get Blue, great, Coal, Willow Tits, Green, Gold Finches. Nuthatch, Woodpecker, Siskin etc all feeding on the hearts.

 

Good luck encouraging the birds they are a delight to watch and hear.

Dawn.

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Pip; As ye read that in C&A, might it not be implying that captive Goldies might manage to over do it on the stuff? You know, birds stuck in an aviery and perhaps offered it a bit too close to exclusively, perhaps, in the belief that as they like it, it must be best? Just a thought.

 

Regards Sunflower Hearts? Yeppers, I agree. Great stuff. Only my advise - based on bitter experience! - would be to ignore the cost and Don't try to save a pound by buying bloody Black Sunflower whole! The buggers tend to dehusk that shit in situ. Believe me; In next to no time ye'll end up with a tremendous and ghastly pile of empty shells on the ground there!

 

I wound up virtually kicking my way through the bloody things! Buy Hearts!

[Nell 1]

Goldfinches are in flocks at the moment, I counted 18 on 4 feeders in our orchard on Saturday, and the Cats being there dont make a dying bit of difference, although they are behind bars!! Nyger seeds are fine, but also Sunflower hearts, they love them, you will get lots of other species too, if you feed hearts. We get Blue, great, Coal, Willow Tits, Green, Gold Finches. Nuthatch, Woodpecker, Siskin etc all feeding on the hearts.

 

Good luck encouraging the birds they are a delight to watch and hear.

Dawn.

 

Dawn, You are a lucky, lucky girl!!

[trappa 518]

I put black sunflowers out in the feeders and the goldies and greenies love them. Tried niger and sunflower hearts but they dont have the success that black sunflowers do.

[Dawn B 212]

Goldfinches are in flocks at the moment, I counted 18 on 4 feeders in our orchard on Saturday, and the Cats being there dont make a dying bit of difference, although they are behind bars!! Nyger seeds are fine, but also Sunflower hearts, they love them, you will get lots of other species too, if you feed hearts. We get Blue, great, Coal, Willow Tits, Green, Gold Finches. Nuthatch, Woodpecker, Siskin etc all feeding on the hearts.

 

Good luck encouraging the birds they are a delight to watch and hear.

Dawn.

 

Dawn, You are a lucky, lucky girl!!

I know, very priviledged. ill try to get some photos of them when they are in large numbers on the feeders.

[Guest pip]

DS it was letter written in by someone reminding people that fill wild bird feeders with niger seed that pinks will gorge on it and that it builds cianide in the stomach and can kill em ,seeing as it was a private letter i couldn t be sure of the accuracy of it but it has stuck with me especially as i watch them flock the feeders now that they ve came i might switch to sunflower or make up a mix

[Guest Ditch_Shitter]

Actually, Pip; Even just glancing at the title of this thread again brought something back to me in a flash. It's sort of related (?);

 

Isn't it a 'Known Thing', amongst bird keepers, that too much Sunflower seed ~ the regular, old fashioned, stripey stuff ~ is said to be bad for Bullfinches?

 

I mean, I'm going back decades and decades now. But I'm bloody sure an old Bird Catcher or two told me that, back in the day.

 

Wonder if there's a connection?

[Guest pip]

Actually, Pip; Even just glancing at the title of this thread again brought something back to me in a flash. It's sort of related (?);

 

Isn't it a 'Known Thing', amongst bird keepers, that too much Sunflower seed ~ the regular, old fashioned, stripey stuff ~ is said to be bad for Bullfinches?

 

I mean, I'm going back decades and decades now. But I'm bloody sure an old Bird Catcher or two told me that, back in the day.

 

Wonder if there's a connection?

After my father in law died of cancer we where looking at alternative cures,too late i know,but we noticed how ineffective and hard the the chemo and radio therapy was,anyhow we came across B17 which is a natural vitamin found mainly in apricot seeds peaches and nectarines etc but apples and most seeds have this which is the only thing known to prevent and kill cancer cells,from what iv e gathered.The only issue is that in large quantities it releases cyanide and may be harmfull.According to the FDA, but of course it doesn t have a financial gain for anyone either Anyhow iv e noticed that according to what ive read most seeds can have this effect.Like people feeding flax seed to horses and noticing what a great effect a little does then giving more and the horse going down.Don t know if this is all correct but you d imagine with seeds birds could cope with larger quantities naturally, Although i could enjoy the birds a bit more knowing i wasn t doing them damage