Goldfinches are beautiful birds known for their colourful feathers and cheerful songs, so if you want them flocking to your garden, then now in summer is the time to attract them. It is currently breeding season for many birds, so goldfinches will be busy raising their young and will make regular trips away from their nests to find food.
Adult goldfinches mainly eat seeds, but at the moment, they will be feeding their baby chicks insects because young birds need the extra protein to grow. However, the recent dry weather in the UK will have caused more wildflowers to die off and insects to bury deeper in the soil for moisture, so there is less food for goldfinches to forage. If you want to help out goldfinches, Lori Vanover from Birds & Blooms has shared that they will stay close to any garden with sunflowers.
Why do goldfinches love sunflowers?
Lori said: “Sunflowers are one of the best plants for attracting goldfinches, because sunflower seeds are one of their favourite foods! Leaving spent flower heads in place is a wonderful thing to do for wildlife.”
Sunflowers are massive, so it is really easy for goldfinches to cling to the flower and extract their seeds without much effort.
These seeds also contain a lot of food and are high in calories, which will give goldfinches the energy they need to forage in hot weather.
It is one of the best ways to provide goldfinches with a natural food source in late summer, when they might struggle to find insects and other food due to the heat.
They also absolutely love the taste of sunflower seeds, so if you have any sunflowers growing in your garden, then leave them to wilt naturally, and you will spot goldfinches in no time.
What other plants do goldfinches love?
If you cannot be bothered mowing your lawn at the moment, then you will have a good excuse to let the grass grow, as goldfinches love dandelions and milkweeds.
They tend not to eat these plants, but instead, it is a cannon nest-building material for them, so they will likely build a nest nearby if you leave a few weeds growing in your garden.
Goldfinches also absolutely love thistles, as they not only like eating the seeds but they also use this Scottish plant to build nests in late summer to early autumn.
However, if you just want a simple plant to grow, then goldfinches also like eating the seeds from purple coneflowers, which you should be able to find at any gardening centre.
It is really common for goldfinches to come into gardens in July, so taking the time to plant some flowers now will ensure you will see these magnificent birds flying about every day.
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