American goldfinches feeding from socks

This video from the USA says about itself:

9 August 2017

40 minutes of Goldfinches! American Goldfinches with the males in their peak summer color just love finch socks filled with thistle or nyjer seed. Since I started using these the Goldfinches hang around the deck literally from dawn to dusk and can eat a sock in about 4 to 6 days with 6 to 8 finches on average. If you put out two or three socks not only will you attract many more finches once word spreads, but they will tend to settle down and share more rather than fight.

One sock will hold about 4 finches on average; any more than that and they get cranky and start fighting. The finches seem to like the socks much better than my old metal screen feeders, I think it is easier for them to hang onto in various improbably positions. My only problem is the bears like the socks too, but not the raccoons. So I have to take them down each night. To see a bear rip one open check out here.

These are the Pennington brand socks sold separately at Wal Mart, Ingles Grocery and Amazon for around $4. I tried a higher end sock and they were not as popular as the holes were just a bit smaller and harder to get the seed out, so they finished the Pennington first as birds generally take the easiest way to get their food – like all of us.