greenfinches

[Jabber]

Hi all, I'm new here and hope you will be able to help with my queries :)
When I first started feeding birds about 2 years ago I used to get a lot of Greenfinch amongst others but lately I am lucky to see 1 a week and was wondering why. The only thing I can think of is I changed my food from mixed seed to kibbled sunflower hearts. I still hear Greenfinches but they don't visit the feeders very often, I get lots of Goldfinch and members of the tit family but no Greenfinch. I recently bought Chris Packams 'Backyard nature reserve' and he says that they prefer to shell the black sunflower seeds themselves, could this be the reason? I am loathe to start feeding black sunflower seeds again because of the mess they leave but would love to see more Greenfinch. :o

[mollydog]

hiya,
i have been feeding the birds for 5 yrs and get loads of greenfinches on the garden and i only feed sunflower hearts so i do not know why they could have dissappeared out of your garden unless it is just coincidence.Unfortunately i have had a problem arise with the parasite which attacks finches[Trichomanas]so since yesterday when i realized there was a problem i have had to take down all my feeders.:( and alerted all the neighbours who i know who feed the birds also But i always get a large variety of birds feeding sunflower hearts.

[Kerry L]

Hello Jabber and welcome to the site.

I don't know if this applies to your area, but in the newspaper last week it mentioned a deadly parasite that is wiping out finches in the Midlands.

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2355593_2,00.html (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2355593_2,00.html)

This link should tell you more about it and what to do and who to report to if you find a dead finch - if you do, DON'T TOUCH IT!

Janet has already mentioned the virus on another posting - also good to read.

Other than that, it may be that because the weather is still mild, there is plenty of other food in plentiful supply. Keep trying anyway, and remember to clean your feeder regularly.

Regards, Kerry

[Jabber]

Thank-you both for your replies, I haven't had a look at the link yet but haven't seen any dead finches and still get 20 plus Goldfinches at a time so I don't think it's a parasite unless it's specifically hitting the greenfinches. When I check the BTO's bird maps I can see that lots of greenfinch are still being reported in my area unfortunately just not in my garden, there are lots of berries and seedheads about this year so maybe things will change when the bountiful natural supplies run out. :)