The love life of a bird is no different than love life our own...he loves, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not, he...

Tell your reader to plants lots and lots of verbena bonariensis to tower above the daisies. The verbena is for the goldfinches. It's their favorite. Stick verbena is also loved by butterflies, especially Monarchs.

Goldfinch feet cling to the petals of daisy-shaped flowers like rudbeckia and gerbera. So, the petals fall out (from the grip of the toes and the weight of the birds) while they are eating the seeds from the center.

Cameron

OMG, a bear baffle! And I thought armadillos pillaging for earthworms were bad.

The Goldfinches in Ohio are ruthless as well. All four of my hanging Gerber daisy baskets have been plucked clean of all petals. I'm thinking of covering them with netting.

Just this morning on my sister's deck in NE Alabama we watched a goldfinch drop blossoms out of the chestnut tree along the woods.

So it's not just gerberas that are being stripped. The tree is pretty full, so it might keep the finches too busy to get to her gerberas...

I agree with Cameron- plant something that the finches really like (Echinacea is another idea), maybe that'll relieve the stress on the Gerberas.

When we built our house in the middle of nowhere 3 years ago, the finches were very Hitchcockian- clinging to our window screens by the dozens and peering in (I love birds, but that was pretty freakin' creepy). Now that we have a lot of plants that they like out in the yard, they no longer frequent our porches.

One thing you might try, John, is to put a birdfeeder somewhere in your yard away from the gerberas and fill it with seed goldfinches like, such as thistle and black oil seed. Maybe they'll go to the feeder instead of your flowers. Or put out pots of plastic gerberas! That'll teach those stinking birds a lesson!

John you could plant something else...and just show those pesky birds who is boss around there!

I have noticed the same strange behavior of the goldfinches here in Minnesota. I always thought it was rabbits eating the petals off the flowers in my garden. This year to defeat the rabbits, I planted the gerbera daisies in my planters on my patio. I have seen the culprits, aka goldfinches, in action, pulling the petals off the flowers. I do have a bird feeder near by as well as other plants such as echinacea, liatris and monarda near by which doesn't seem to help. Although something does keep eating the tops off the liatris plants before they even get a chance to bloom.

Spread the word to your friends, family, and all the world -- goldfinches must be stopped!!!

We have this exact problem with zinnias on our patio. Our neighbor has bird feeders that attract the finches. Then the finches come over to our zinnias and pluck out the petals one by one with their beaks, leaving nothing but stumps. I notice that they don't tend toward the neighbor's flowers, which are closer, so I'm thinking it has to do with they type of flower. Someone at the garden center said its possible that since finches are herbuvores, they are not getting a specific nutrient from the bird seed and are looking for other sources. He suggested getting nyger seeds, putting them in a bird feeder away from the flowers, and seeing if that solves the problem. I just found this out a couple of days ago so haven't tried it yet, but good luck!

Lesser goldfinches here in southern California are eating our young sunflowers' leaves from the stem out, leaving a lacework of veins and fragments that look like somebody took tiny pinking shears to them. The flowers haven't developed yet, and I won't mind the finches eating the seeds later, but I'm worried the birds will kill the plants before the flowers bloom.

We're going to try spraying garlic-infused water on the leaves, but that's a wild guess.

Wow, I never knew goldfinches could be so vicious! Let everyone know if the garlic spray works.

Thanks for asking this question John, now I know what's going on with my gerbers I have potted on the front porch. I live in Green Bay, WI. This is the first year this is happening and I thought it was the rabbits! Damn Finches!

From all the destruction going on in Wisconsin and Minnesota, I would guess that goldfinches aren't Lutheran.

Nope, garlic water made no impression.
Tinsel didn't bother them.
Maybe sticky vegetable oil? The plants seemed to have survived and are blooming as well as they can following a very overcast June, so maybe the question is irrelevant now.

It makes me rethink our plans to plant spinach, however. Canaries (close relatives of finches) think there isn't anything tastier than spinach.

Hmmm....our cat loves spinach too. Maybe if you got cats and goldfinches together to eat spinach, the problem would resolve itself.

My goodness! I not only have a gang of goldfinch, they seem to have recruited English Sparrows to help in their dirtywork. Three weeks ago, I had a full, vibrant patchwork of perennial daisies in my garden. One morning I just happened to look out my front window and there they were climbing the stems of the plants and literally plucking the flowers off the top! I watched as they flew away with their bounty in beak only to be amazed when they dropped the flower and returned to pluck again!! I am so glad that I am not alone in noticing this odd odd behavior! My plants are now stripped bare and I just keep shaking my head when I think about how it happened.

TaDa, i have the answer, i have a plastic bumble bee with whirly wings on a stick and i put him right in the middle of my flower pot. bingo, flowers are blooming again and no pesky birds. :)

I'm seeing the same behaviour in Tidewater Virginia! Goldfinches are plucking out the petals on the black eye susans and zinnias. They seem to mostly go for the yellow flowers. I thought they wanted to be the only gold in town!

Honestly though, I've never seen this before. Do you think they are trying to get the flowers to set seed by stripping the petals? Are birds that smart?

Maybe we better ask Alfred Hitchcock.

Great! i like gerbera so much coz it looks so innocent and if i had this on my garden i feel happy.

ford