Stokes Select 38171 Finch Screen Feeder

 (7 customer reviews)

I had a feeder with four socks that attracted vast flocks of finches, right outside my window, and I loved it. What I didn't love was the huge piles of seed that spilled out every day. Far more seed was wasted than eaten.

This feeder can't hold as many finches as four long socks, obviously, but I've counted 8 or 9 at a time clustered around it. And spillage can't be more than about one twentieth of the old feeder. This thing is sturdy, and the lid comes off easily for refilling.

Highly recommended.

This was my upgrade from a finch sock, or so I thought. The birds flocked to it at first, but then they would only visit, look at it, MAYBE take a seed or two then leave. The problems?

The first problem I noticed was the small tray at the bottom of the feeder. It fills with dislodged seeds and shells that rot and mildew quickly. This then spreads and begins rotting ALL of the seed at the bottom of the feeder.

I then discovered that the seeds on the inside of the screen were mildewing prematurely. Rather than risk feeding my birds mildewed seed I ended up throwing a LOT of thistle seed away and that stuff isn't cheap!

I finally replaced it with a inexpensive plastic finch feeder with small seed ports. The plastic keeps the seed drier and I haven't had the mildew problem I did with this open mesh feeder.

i too had high hopes for this feeder. goldfinches will not come to it like the droll yankee tube feeder i swapped it out with. the seed gets wet, what a waste. i contacted the manufacturer and never received a reply. when i removed this feeder and once again placed the droll yankee tube feeder up the finches came back right away. thought it would be a good feeder to use as a rotation feeder, but i guess i'll just buy a second droll yankee and get rid of this one-and no, i don't work for droll yankee.