i guess the females are busy this time of year.how sweet the male feeds them and a good thing or theyd surely starve before the eggs hatch out..

we set up niger seed feeders special for these beautiful birds and have shown alot of people we know about them and show them what feeders to use to attract them.

I lived in Pgh 32 yrs before I even knew we had them I just happened to see them eating from m y garden plants and when i tried a feeder sock w niger seed i suddenly had a hundred..

my father saw them in my yard a few years ago and says they had these in Library Pa where he grew up as a child and they called them wild canarys.. he also never knew that they also live right here in the city and that if you provide a feeder w niger seed or the proper plantings that these will never leave your yard here in pgh…

I’d not read your blog for a couple of weeks, as is my habit — I like to “stockpile” the entries, then read thru. The timing for me to have read in today from the 10Jul entry was perfect, per my short anecdote, below.

I, too, had noticed goldfinches in the last week or so. I was becoming concerned for having not seen them till then; didn’t occur to me that their arrival is “timed” for the sunflower seeds, etc.

They’re such striking birds in a city environment; seems now that every other sidewalk strip or front-yard garden might have a goldfinch exploding forth from the sunflowers or hollyhocks. What fun to watch their undulating flight!

Thanks for the mini-lesson.

David