Skip to main content
Chaffinches & Greenfinches

Chaffinches & Greenfinches

Chaffinches and greenfinches both have the stout, conical bill of a seed eater, and both do well on a general mix or on sunflower hearts — but they use a garden very differently. Greenfinches are confident feeder birds and will sit on a tube feeder for minutes at a time, bullying anything smaller off it. Chaffinches much prefer to work the ground beneath, picking up what the birds above have dropped.

That difference is worth designing around. A hanging feeder with a mix or with hearts serves the greenfinches, and a little of the same scattered on a bird table or a ground tray underneath serves the chaffinches, who would otherwise mostly ignore the feeder entirely. Greenfinches will also take peanuts from a mesh feeder, which chaffinches generally will not.

One practical note: greenfinches are susceptible to disease passed on at busy feeding stations, so whatever you put out, clean the feeder regularly and move it occasionally rather than leaving one spot in permanent use.

Related ranges

Sunflower hearts are also what brings in goldfinches. Browse wild bird seed, sunflower hearts and peanuts.

!