House Finches Aggressive towards its own species or .....
Outdoor Ontario

House Finches Aggressive towards its own species or .....

orchidpoet

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I read that the house finches tolerate its own species at the feeder. But I saw they actually drive other house finches away.

Or is it possible that they were actually fighting with purple finches. It's so hard to tell.

I made a short video of a pair of house finches at the feeder. Hope I got the ID right.

https://youtu.be/saxP47NcCZQ
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »


Brown-headed Birder

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I've had bird feeders for about three decades and I have to say most species can be tolerant or aggressive depending on the situation.  Your video is of a male and female House Finch.  This is by no means an exhaustive list but here goes:  

- If you want to curb aggression it's best to have more than one feeder if you can and use seeds appropriate to different species in different feeders.  Keep the feeders full so every perch can access seed.
- I use hanging tube feeders with about six perches at different levels up the tube for niger seed as that is liked by all the finches but isn't the first choice for most other species.  With a full feeder, and multiple perches, the finches can eat in groups and aggression is minimized.  If enough arrive at once they will still displace each other sometimes but at least the finches won't have to fight much with others.
- Then I have 1-2 of the hanging feeders that have the big hoppers -- that look like houses -- and have perches on one or two sides with several holes in front of the perches to access the seeds.  The two-sided ones again are better, more perches means less fighting.  I use one for sunflower seeds and one for shelled peanuts and then the species can separate themselves a little again with bigger birds after the peanuts and the rest after the sunflower seeds.  
- You can have platform feeders on top of a pole instead of hanging hopper ones and you will get a nice mix of birds all on one feeder but there will be more aggression sometimes as they jostle for place.
- Hang a large seed/suet cake inside one of the square metal cages and you've got woodpeckers and nuthatches happy without them fighting too much to get at the hopper feeders
- And while this doesn't touch on aggression, I've given up on using mixed seeds as I find the birds tend to pick out or spill out the ones they don't prefer and make a mess on the ground below.

Hope this helps,

Theresa
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »


orchidpoet

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Theresa, thanks for the detailed information!

So much to learn. I am just a newbie in this. :)
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »