Over the past few years, lesser goldfinches (carduelis psaltria) have become one of the most frequent visitors to our feeders. They particularly love the Nyjer thistle seed, which we have out in a half-dozen or so feeders. They're amongst the bravest of the visiting birds we have, sometimes lighting on the feeder even when we're carrying it back after refilling it.
What makes this especially delightful for us is that for the first five years or so that we lived here, we couldn't entice these little birds to our feeders. We hung a thistle seed feeder out for all those years, moving it around various places in our yard to attract them. Finally, about three years ago I placed the feeder on a pole in an area of our yard that was far removed from our house — and our feeder was discovered! Within a few weeks, we were being visited by dozens of goldfinches a day. Then we started putting up more feeders near the house, and the goldfinches figured it out. Now we're going through 40 to 50 pounds of thistle seed every month (and that stuff is expensive!), but we're rewarded by an all-day display of dozens of birds. It's not at all unusual for every single one of the perches on every thistle seed feeder to be occupied — sometimes by two birds! In the springtime the golden-yellow color of the males is something to behold; they're considerably more muted now...
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