Colorful Backyard Birds Are Easily Attracted With The Thistle Feeder

They're Picky!

Make no mistake, your feeders will sit empty if you

A) Use old thistle

B) Neglect to clean the feeder

The American goldfinch is notoriously picky about dirty feeders and stale food. That coupled with the fact that this beautiful bird is easily dominated by others, you run the risk of not seeing him. Therefore, it is imperative that you clean the feeder and use fresh thistle. With that said...

On to what thistle feeder makes and models.

As with the sunflower (large hole) tube feeder, a standard thistle feeder is a tube with two or more perches located near an opening called a port. It is from here that the birds perch and feed.

The thistle feeder has evolved significantly over the past ten years. It use to be that access to the tube's bottom could only be accomplished by reaching down from the top. This made maintaining a clean tube cumbersome at best.

Another design flaw rests with the placement of the ports. At the feeder's bottom , the port is often so close to the perch that the birds can not eat from it.

As a result, thistle tends to "gunk-up" near the bottom because the birds can not reach it to feed. After a bit, mold grows. You can't reach it to clean it and Poof!

No more birds.

Manufacturers have reacted.

Bird Quest leads the pack. As with their sunflower (large hole) tube feeder, a twist of the bottom cap completely separates it from the feeder, thus making cleaning a breeze.

The other great innovation of the Bird Quest product is the spiral arm that winds around the feeder giving more ports and thus, potentially more birds.

It's a ball to watch the birds work this feeder. They've a tendency to "run the spiral" even when spooked. The advantage to you is that the birds are "watchable" for longer periods of time!

And the cherry on the pie? How about a life time warranty! You really can't beat this feeder. It's pictured to the right in its green format--it is also available in yellow and copper.

The copper will set ya back an extra five bucks, but it's a really good looking feeder. And remember, a goldfinch doesn't care about color!

Aspects has a unique solution to the problem of thistle "gunking-up." This company has designed a cap-like structure called a skirt that fastens to the bottom of the feeder. This gives the birds access to thistle even when the feeder is nearly empty.

Inside the feeder, an insert drives the thistle to the bottom of the feeder where birds can reach it. With less gunking-up, the tube remains clean and you will have less headache maintaining it. As with Bird Quest, Aspects provides a life-time guarantee.

Droll Yankees is a leading manufacturer of bird feeders and accessories. However, to date, I would not recommend their thistle feeder. Not only is there no way to access the bottom, but the bottom is molded to the plastic tube. A very poor design indeed. However, Droll is re-engineering their thistle feeder and they anticipate a release date in March of 2007. I'll review the product and let you know about its effectiveness.

The Thistle Sock Feeder

Put out a thistle sock and you will be amazed at what happens. This feeder is a simple small pouch with perforations. Fill it with thistle and marvel at the way these birds swarm to this feeder.

Thistle socks typically come in black or white. My tests have shown that the birds overwhelmingly prefer a white sock. However, this may be directly related to the "hole size" from which the birds pluck the seed than of color. If the hole is too small, they'll be unable to extract the seed.

One caveat about the thistle pouch.

It will get nasty in a short period of time and you'll need to replace it. If you grow weary of this, and you really want to include this as a component of your station, then you may want to consider Back Yard Nature Group's metal thistle tube (which is really a sock made of metal).

This awesome feeder boasts the durability of tube feeder while forcing the birds to cling while eating.

The metal thistle tube consists of a tube shape cylinder, but rather than plastic, the main body of the feeder is constructed of metal with perforations. It really is a metal sock.

A patented technology allows the bottom of this feeder to be easily removed for cleaning. And guess what? Life-time guarantee! This product is getting great reviews from users. Take a look.

"This thistle feeder is the best one I've ever had! It's sturdy, easy to fill and clean since both the top and bottom can be removed. Within 5 minutes of putting it up, the goldfinches swarmed it. We've had 7 and 8 on at a time. The only problem is running out of seed!!"

Beth Chambers, Lexington, KY

Got Sparrows, Want Goldfinches? Use an Upside Down Thistle Feeder

There is one additional thistle feeder we need to discuss. It's called the upside down thistle feeder. Remember when I said that most thistle eating birds are clingers? Well, that's true enough. But there's one thistle-eating bird that's a percher, not a clinger.

It's the English sparrow.

He's a pest, no doubt. An invasive species from Europe, this fella is tough. He' known to overwhelm thistle feeders. And where there is one, there are a dozen.

If he swamps your station, you will need to go to an upside down thistle feeder. This Perky Pet product boasts feeding ports that set beneath the perches. Clingers like the goldfinch have no problem hanging upside down and eating. Sparrows don't cling, they perch.

Problem solved!

There are two versions of this feeder. They're both cheap and you'll need to replace them frequently. If you can afford it, pay the extra few bucks for the upgraded model. In the long run, it's worth it. Sorry folks, no warranties on these.