Some natural food sources finches like include dandelions, coneflowers, Joe pye weed, sunflowers, and coreopsis. Some birdseed manufacturers sell baked birdseed.

Nyjer® is NOT: - A pink to purple flowering plant of the thistle species - A perennial or biennial noxious weed - An aggressive, opportunistic thistle strain from Europe, Africa or Asia . It is not a thistle at all, but rather Niger Plant (Guizotia abyssinica). Question Date: 2006-06-05: Answer 1: Thank you for sending in this important question.

Keep in mind that it’s the seed they’re after, so let the flowers go to seed. Niger seed contains proteins, oil and soluble sugars. Niger seeds are used as bird feed worldwide. Niger seed actually comes from India, Ethiopia, and Asia.
Radish seed saving requires nothing more than leaving the pods on the plants until they are brown and mostly dried.

It is one of the preferred foods of goldfinches. Keep an eye on them if the weather is turning wet so they don’t mildew. It is not Thistle .
When seeds are baked, they lose the ability to germinate. Had I been wrong all these years?

Jennybear, I read somewhere that Niger seed can go bad fairly easily and when that happens, birds will avoid it. So I put fresh seed in and now they're flocking to it. I had some leftover a while and my birds wouldn't touch it either. The plant has no prickles and it is related to sunflowers. If this is looking imminent, I suggest abandoning the radish seed saving in lieu of harvesting the pods and eating them before they go bad. 0 0 2. It is believed "thistle" was used in early marketing to take advantage of the Goldfinches' preference for thistle seeds. When I picked up the half-gallon jug of the glossy black seeds, I noticed it was labeled NYJER. Commercial niger seed is grown in Africa, India and other areas of southeast Asia, and the seed is imported around the world as a popular type of birdseed. The plant is called Guizotiaabyssinica. The seed is often sold as bird seed as it is a favourite of finches, especially Goldfinch and Greenfinch.

Common names include niger and nyjer. I also read that if the seed has been bad long enough, it can make the feeder smell bad to the birds and so it needs cleaning for them to return. How do you get seeds out of vegetables? I hope my answer will help you to understand a very important difference between fruits and vegetable that you can pass along to your friends and classmates (and even some grown-ups).

Source(s): Botanist.