We often get visitors to our website wanting to know how to attract finches. Depending on what part of the country you live in, you will attract different types, but you can still apply these principles no matter where you live – there are many varieties of finches in the U.S.

Here are some things that finches like to eat:

• Mulberries

• Blackberries

• Cherries

• Cotoneaster (a woody shrub with white flowers and red berries)

• Weed seeds – dandelion in particular

• Zinnias (a white flower [much like a daisy] with yellow center)

• Sunflowers (all types)

• Coreopsis (a shrub with yellow, daisy-like flowers)

• Niger seed (also called “thistle”)

• Millet – white proso

• Sunflower seeds

• Cosmos (small, purple flowers)

• Bachelor's Buttons (large, purple flowers)

• Love-lies-bleeding (has red, thin, drooping flowers)

• Canary seeds 

Some types will also eat suet, sugar-water solution, peanut hearts and peanut butter. Finches will eat from tube feeders, hopper feeders and also special finch “sock feeders.” A birdbath will also help attract finches as they are drawn to a water source. 

Finches are good to have around since they will eat some types of insects such as aphids, many types of beetles, leafhoppers, leaf miners and spruce budworms. They will also eat caterpillars. In this way they contribute to natural pest control.

Of all the finch varieties, only the House Finch will use a birdhouse. A birdhouse for a House Finch needs to have a 2” entry hole – our custom birdhouses can be obtained with this hole size or you can go to our Birds That Use Birdhouses page for other House Finch birdhouse options. A House Finch will also nest on a platform.

To help you identify a House Finch, the male has red coloring on the head, chest and rump, while the female is brown and striped. They are known to nest in close proximity to humans and will easily come to feeders. Their sound is a sharp “cheep” and a hoarse warble that goes up and down rapidly. House Finches lay pale blue eggs with small dark speckles.