Watch (and Listen!) for Squeaky Juveniles!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Keep your eye out for juveniles making their first appearance at your feeders and baths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Juvenile Goldfinches will soon be\u00a0feeding voraciously<\/strong>\u00a0at your feeders and learning how to use your bird bath for the first time. You’ll be able to hear them first, most likely. They sound squeaky.\u00a0Really<\/em>\u00a0squeaky<\/strong>!!! Juveniles look like duller females, with tan on black wing bars, but you can instantly tell them apart when you hear that squeak!<\/p>\n\n\n\n They’re waiting for milkweed, thistle, and other plants to go to seed. Thistle is the key! Goldfinches incorporate the plant fibers into their nests and feed the seeds to their young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why don’t they eat something else in the meantime, like insects? Because Goldfinches are strict vegetarians<\/strong>! A Goldfinch\u00a0will only eat an insect if it flies directly into its\u00a0mouth!\u00a0 But this offers up an opportunity for backyard birders. When natural food supplies aren’t available, your feeder filled with nyjer (thistle) seeds (or feeder with hulled sunflower kernels) is exactly what they’re waiting for !<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next year, why not go the extra step and plant thistle, milkweed and other natives in your yard. Seeing generations of happy, healthy Goldfinches foraging in your garden is much more fun than mowing all that grass… <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nWhy do Goldfinches nest later than all the other birds?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/thebackyardnaturalist.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/TheBYN-Goldfinch-Feeding-Upside-Down-Thistle.png\")
<\/figure>Get in on the Upside Down action!!!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n