Perky-Pet Upside Down Goldfinch Feeder - 736

Goldfinches love this attractive feeder. I wanted to replace the flimsier, flexible, yellow-capped $10-$13 upside-down feeders that break too easily, spill seed if you hold the feeder too tightly after refilling, and let in rain through the seed holes. As some reviewers have said, the drawback to the new feeder is that other birds can get to the thistle by reaching up to a hole; it's hard to believe that the feeder designer didn't anticipate this. Didn't anyone test the feeder before production? Simply adding half an inch or so between perch levels would have solved the problem.On the plus side, the roof helps keep the seed dry, and the base, which would have been more useful if larger and concave (it is small and flat), catches some of the spilled seed, and the goldfinches eat it there. I didn't remove the base, as other reviewers have done, because this feeder's only pests -- house finches and sparrows -- can still sit on a perch and reach a hole above, so I left the base on to catch some seed.The good news is that house finches and sparrows prefer black-oil sunflower to thistle. As long as my sunflower feeders are not close to this feeder (mine are about 15 feet away) and have ample seed in them, the house finches and sparrows invariably go for the sunflower and ignore the thistle feeder, where they have to work a little harder anyway to reach up and take seed. And the goldfinches DO catch on to the upside-down thing right away; they often eat upside-down on garden plants, so they have no problem with an upside-down feeder.

As others have noted, it's best to remove the bottom plate, which detached by removing two small screws.My goldfinches figured this feeder out within 10 minutes, and in that sense it works well. They land upright, swivel downward, and start eating. I've noticed my American Goldfinches are particularly good at it, my Lesser Goldfinches seem not as enthusiastic about this feeder (although they will use it).In my area (Central Texas), however, some of the native sparrows are large enough that they can stretch from the lower posts and feed (right side up) from the slots underneath the high posts. So the sparrows will sometimes squeeze the goldfinches out. If the posts were spaced a couple more inches apart, this problem would probably be solved.And I have to say that the goldfinches clearly prefer to feed from a wire mesh feeder I also have, although that feeder is much more prone to sparrow invasion, so the finches are squeezed out more often on that one.On balance, this is "pretty good". I'd give it 3.5 stars if Amazon allowed. Happy I bought it, but not a perfect solution.

One of the better Gold Finch feeders I've seen. It has a few deficiencies though. The plastic tubing is a little flimsy, but it's less noticeable due to the thin metal wrappings that seem to help keep it stable. I'm not a fan of the wire hanger but it does seem well made and durable. The reason I'm not a fan is that I feel the wire might cause the feeder to swing more violently when there's enough wind. I'll have to use it more to say for sure though, because I could be wrong. The perch bars seem strong and durable, but two of them will slide a bit. Not so bad that gravity or shaking the feeder will make it slip, but one I can move without applying much pressure, another requires a bit of pressure, and the top one won't move at all. The lid seems solid as well, only issue being it wobbles a little bit. This may be part of the design to help keep squirrels away though.All in all, worth it for the price. If you wanted a feeder and didn't want to get too crazy on the price, I'd put this on the short list.

If you love watching 12-20 busy finches on a nyger sock or mesh tube feeder, this feeder is NOT for you. Only a few finches can feed at once & they greatly prefer the other types of feeders. I had to hang a nyger sock next to this one and a macrame plant holder around it for perching to coax them to use this one even though they readily feed upside down (and rightside up) on the sock/mesh feeders. However, it will be a real asset in wet weather because the limited holes and the canopy will protect the seeds. For this reason I give it 4 stars & am happy with the purchase. Perhaps this feeder is more useful to keep out other birds in the Eastern parts of the country where it got rave reviews. I have dozens of yellow finches come to my feeders and no other birds. I hang black sunflower seed tubes right next to them for the purple finches and a few others but there's no cross feeding. Ground eating birds come to clean up the dropped seed. Perhaps a matter of geography and slightly different bird species.

This feeder is Excellent! I have changed my review on this bird feeder. Initially I said the feeder was of good construction and attractive, but as for a feeder for just goldfinches, which was the reason I bought it, it did not work. The house finches were the only, and not that often, birds that came to this feeder. The finches, House and sometimes Gold (if the Goldfinches were not being chased away) were always at and prefered, the other two feeders I have; I never saw Goldfinches trying to use this feeder.But what happened 14 months later was amazing!!!!! The Goldfinches who initially never used this feeder finally after a year figured out that they could hang upside down, just like the picture of this feeder shows, and could eat the Nyjer seed from a position no other bird could do. I now see 4 to 5 Goldfinches at a time hanging upside down eating from this feeder, and my house finches stay manly at the other two feeders at the other side of the yard. If you buy this feeder, be patient. It will eventually (in about a year) become a feeder manly for Goldfinches.

Vorne weg: Die Lieferung erfolgte schnell, die Futtersäule ist von guter Qualität, schön verarbeitet und sehr stabil.Die Befüllung ist etwas kniffelig, da der Deckel nicht komplett abgenommen werden kann.Die Verwendung scheiterte bei mir dann an folgendem Punkt: Die Öffnungen zur Entnahme des Futters für die Vögel sind kleine schmale Schlitze. Normales Futter oder Futtermischungen kann man da nicht reinfüllen, die bekommt kein Vogel da raus.Also schrieb ich dem Verkäufer.Dieser antwortete auch postwendend(leider in Englisch). Tatsächlich ... man braucht Spezialfutter: Nyjer Saat.Also begab mich auf die Suche nach dem geeigneten Futter für die Säule.Bei einem Spezialanbieter für Wildvogelfutter wurde ich fündig und kaufte für über 15,- € Futter.Als dieses dann endlich da war, befüllte ich die Säule und wartete dann geschlagene 4 Wochen, dass auch nur ein einziger Vogel sich hier bedient.Leider Fehlanzeige... während das andere angebotene Futter und die Futterplätze heiß begehrt sind.Ich habe die Säule jetzt abgenommen und im Keller gelagert.Das war nun aber leider nicht der Sinn des Kaufs.Bei der Abnahme und Entfüllung dann das nächste Problem: Im unteren Teil der Säule setzt sich das Futter in den dortigen Verankerungen etc. fest und man kann das nicht mehr entfernen. Das bedeutet, ein Sockel an altem Futter verbleibt immer in der Säule. Ich denke, dass kann nicht wirklich hygienisch sein, oder? Das Futter verdirbt dann doch irgendwann und wenn man neues oben auffüllt, kann das doch nicht gut sein.Aber das ist nur eine Vermutung.

Well made. Attractive.An improvement would be to make the bottom easier to remove for cleaning. There are three little screws. I'm concerned that they will wear out with use. A minor concern, though.I didn't get a lot of finches this year, but when I put up an older crappy-looking feeder that was popular in previous years, I still didn't get many. So I'm putting it down to the finches being elsewhere this year.

Works well in drawing goldfinches. Fun to see them eating upside down.