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idratherbegardening

Goldfinches are eating my swiss chard

Tonight when I got home from work, I saw three male and two female goldfinches eating my swiss chard. They were pecking away at the leaves, and had stripped several leaves down to the veins. I thought goldfinshes were seed eaters - usually see them on my coneflowers and black-eyed susans. Anybody else ever have this experience?

Comments (12)

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    14 years ago

    !

    I'd say they were eating aphids and destroyed the plant as a by-product of getting at the leaves.

    Dan

  • idratherbegardening
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    That makes a lot of sense, Dan (actully more sense than birds eating chard leaves). But I haven't seen any aphids (except for the ones on my rose bushes - ugh - of course).

    So I just did a google search on 'goldfinch swiss chard'. My garden web post was the first result returned, but the second result (from encyclopedia.com) included this information:

    "Goldfinches are strongly attracted to nibble the leaves of Swiss chard, but they eat only small bits of the entire leaves. They prefer the variety with red stems called rhubarb chard. They also like beet leaves."

    Not sure how accurate this information is, but I think that was what was going on in my garden tonight.

    It is actually good news because it turns out that none of our family really likes the swiss chard that much, but all of us like goldfinches!

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    14 years ago

    Huh. The goldfinches don't go anywhere near ours. Interesting. Maybe not tasty enough (but I grow for color & don't fert).

    Dan

  • tcstoehr
    14 years ago

    I have witnessed finches this year eating my fruit tree blooms, then the tiny cherry, plum, and apple fruitlets. Later I saw them eating the tops of my Sugar Snap Pea vines. Then they went after my beet leaves. Add this to the fact that they love to peck up cottonseed meal, I consider them to be a barely tolerable nuisance.

  • amyru
    14 years ago

    I am having the same problem and there are no aphids on my chard, I tried a netting but the holes were large enough for the birds to squeeze through. Just bought a netting with smaller holes and will try that. Any other suggestions

  • pegandken
    14 years ago

    I've grown broccoli, cauliflower, spinach.... for over 20 years and goldfinches have always pecked away at the leaves when I first put the small plants in the garden in spring. As the plants get larger and tougher the birds will leave them alone but they can really shred some of the leaves on the newer, smaller plants when I first put them in. I would imagine the younger plants and leaves are much tastier than the older plants which probably get a litter bitter as the plant matures??? Usually if the birds are doing to much damage to my young plants I will cover them with bird netting which does the trick.

  • GreenTart
    11 years ago

    OMG...I thought I was crazy! I saw what I thought was a goldfinch (at a distance, and it wasn't fully gold yet) standing on my young rhubarb swiss chard going to town on it. I couldn't figure out why it would be eating that, as there are no bugs. They were also ignoring all my other plants. I googled the same thing you did (goldfinches chard) and found your post. Little buggers! They've destroyed most of the leaves! Time for some netting.

  • OttawaTransplant
    10 years ago

    Starting in July, I've been seeing gold finches shredding my beet greens and at first thought there might be bugs, but didn't find any. I really enjoy having them visit my yard, and marvel that they haven't even touched my amaranth, which is a relative, and also red.

  • curtisjohnson
    6 years ago

    Same problem here in north central Idaho (Kamiah area). Saw about a dozen or more gold finches all over my Swiss chard. For the last two weeks the leaves have been full of holes. I thought it was grasshoppers until my observation this morning. Also saw them on my tomato plants ... not sure what they were pecking at yet. Hopefully not the new blossoms. I also have many of my young carrots with the leaves being destroyed ... mostly on one end of the row. Will have to pay more attention to what is going on.

  • tinitime4
    6 years ago

    I have no aphids or other pests. i have been watching them eat my rainbow swiss chard for weeks now. They have worked their way down on a few plants down to the center vein. Amazing creatures!

  • hamptn
    5 years ago

    I’ve had holes in my Swiss Chatd & Curly Kale. I could not figure out what was eating my plants. Last night I saw the Gold Finch nibbling & then singing on top of the biggest Chard Leaf. I had to laugh. This astounded me. I do enjoy watching them. Look to right

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