Beemasters Golden Finch Cam Live - NOW to 6pm tonight

[beemaster]

Just testing out my cam, feeding live stream and showing off the State Bird of New Jersey, the Golden Finch. Normally, a much larger feeder is here, it fell and broke, it is up about 18ft and squirrel free. So for now I have a finch feeder, I thing you bird folks might like this.

P.S. Try it FULL SCREEN, looks pretty good!

www.livestream.com/beemaster

Oh... finches are just finding it - usually Nuthatches, Robins, Downey Woodpeckers, Bluejays, Grackles and cardinals feed here - sorry if activity is slow - new feeder soon

[dragonfly]

I'm an avid birdwatcher and feed them (several different varieties) year-round. We have American Goldfinches here in the winter, then in late spring, they turn bright lemon yellow before they head north for breeding. Is this the same as the Golden Finch? They are beautiful birds.

[beemaster]

Sorry to say I don't know the answer - I do know our finches are indeed beautiful until fall and then they dull in color reatly to survive the preditors who would easily pick them off) but each Spring the males are nearly blinding in color and the females, although not as vivid are also a wonderful bird in the yard.

Note, we have 5 feeders in the back yard - some day I will move my laptop (my main PC tied into my HDTV) toward the rear of the house and fix it on those feeders. I just got this one up this afternoon and the finches are use to the backyard feeders, so they aren't exactly going bonkers over the new location in the front - too many feeder in back that they already know about still.

I'm looking at a very unhappy bluejay who knows he doesn't stand a chance landing on the finch feeder, as I also see many other birds perplexed at the change. I just enjoy watching the fullscreen (47 inch HD set) with any bird that lands, occasionally we do add a bird and it is exciting.

The grackles drive me nuts though, they toss out EVERYTHING they won't eat on to the ground - I aimed the cam at the ground the other day and squirrels, morning doves and a few others were busy cleaning up after the grackles - who can empty a feeder by tossing out what they don't like in about an hour.

I may zoom out a little with the cam, I have a suet cage below the nyjer feeder and it is seeing more action then the finch feeder - ugh.

[dragonfly]

Here, the bluejays are agressive enough that everything else flies off whenever they land.  
The grackles are agressive as well, but fortunately, there are not many of them here.
I have four feeders at a time, plus two suet feeders. I put a safflower seed feeder up for the cardinals and house finches, a hopper-style feeder with wild finch food that the painted buntings, house finches, goldfinches (while they are here), and cardinals will feed out of. a wire cage feeder with whole sunflower seeds in the shell for titmice and chickadees, and a platform feeder with cracked corn and whole sunflower seeds for anyone who likes them.
I use four suet feeders, and have red-bellied woodies, downie woodies, and ladder-back woodies, plus the cardinals have discovered that they love home-made suet- they probably eat as much of it as the woodpeckers do.
I take the finch feeders down once they migrate north and put them back up when they return after breeding season.
Do you have hummingbirds up there?

[beemaster]

Hummingbirds are plentiful here, they hit everything from their feeders, to rose-asharons (sp) to the finch nyjer feeder - which they steal a seed and land on a nearby branh to break it open and eat. I was amazed the first time I saw hummingbirds actually land and rest on branches.

We have a feeder at work, suction cupped to our window in the breakroom - both a male and female frequent it and don't mind us only feet away through the glass watching. It is amazing the acrobatic maneuvers they do to stay aloft, darting and such.

My wife Tracey just bought a new all-bird feeder and I hoisted it up to 15 or so feet, soon I'll get the cam going again, just for the fun of it

[Natalie]

I have been thinking about attracting birds to the yard but not sure what we even have here.
My neighbor has a birdhouse and feeder that attracts a ton of these small grayish birds but I have been thinking of a hummingbird feeder.
I also have some roses of sharon shrubs so maybe that will help attract them.
I just saw a cute feeder last night that you put orange halves on to attract birds and I ordered a birdhouse that you can suction cup to your window and the back is plexi glass so you can watch them nest.
I thought the kids would enjoy that but who knows if it will work and they will even come to it.
I guess we'll see.

[dragonfly]

I just saw a cute feeder last night that you put orange halves on to attract birds and I ordered a birdhouse that you can suction cup to your window and the back is plexi glass so you can watch them nest.
I thought the kids would enjoy that but who knows if it will work and they will even come to it.
I guess we'll see.

Orange halves attract some species of the oriole family, and they will also sometimes visit hummingbird feeders.

With hummers, it sometimes takes a few days to a few weeks for any to find the feeders, but if there are hummers in our area, they will find it.